Master Sargent Rodger Nelson (Carpenter)

Weight: 165

Apparent Age: 75

Archetype: Mercenary Adept: Circle: Unknown

Preferred Weapon: DAOD Assault Nemesis

Runner Song:

 

 Bio: The Carpenters story is a long and sad tale of heartbreak and sorrow, this man served with the Minutemen from there humble beginnings, he sacrificed everything when he was shipped off to Korea and low and behold this man would have to make another sacrifice many years later. He was a forward observer for Kirby and this meant that he was responsible for the detection of ambushes, troop movements and other tactical observations and reporting this vital information back to Kirby and his communication officers. The Carpenter normally was knee deep in the thick of enemy territory and do this he was forced to say good bye to many of his men and fellow brothers. During the great escape from Korea the Carpenter saw the worst of the casualties and was injured by enemy fire himself while trying to rescue a young man who had been seriously wounded and his death was more then certain. The Carpenter failed to reach the young man in time and for his efforts he received a bullet to his leg and only survived do the actions of fellow marine Warren Orrin who dragged the Carpenter into the hanger bay and into there aircraft.

         The Carpenter was patched up by medics on the chopper and survived his wounds only to forever be thrown into the fires of hell afterwords and have the remaining pieces of his soul tainted in the darkness and blood of the war on the homeland, he has seen so much death through the years that he even gave up fully on his own emotions and the Carpenter hasn’t been able to show true emotion ever since he walked away from the Minutemen. He put up a wall as a defence mechanism and this wall has been the only thing that has allowed him to remain in one piece since. Though like all fortifications through the ages they begin to weaken and start to crumble and when ones only defence to all the horror, nightmares, blood, death and killing was locked away behind this wall. Once the wall begins to crumble, all the old emotions return like he was overtaken by a tsunami of emotions and feelings that he hadn’t felt in many a year.

       So it’s time to sit back and listen to the tale of the Carpenter, once he returned from Korea to find that he was considered a war criminal and terrorist the Carpenter was sickened by everything that had transpired. He lost his family do to the lies that where told about him and his fellow marines, the bought into the propaganda and he was told that his parents had disowned him, his wife divorced him and took the kids and remarried a fellow marine officer. He had lost everything, and was also being hunted by the military and government as a traitor, he knew the best place to hide was with his brothers and enter the Sons of Liberty (Freedom Patriots). He might have been done with the war, but the war was not done with him and over the next two decades the Carpenter would serve the order proudly and use his training as a scout to save many civilian lives and allow the Patriots to capitalize in many separate battles throughout the years. Though for the Carpenter he was becoming more and more emotionally isolated as the years progressed and eventually he became nothing more then a machine cold as iron and no longer cared about life in any fashion. This man eventually couldn’t handle the fighting, killing and the nightmares any more and in the spring of 2030 he put in his papers and retired before the last shred of his humanity had been swallowed whole by the great wyrm that is war.

      When he left the patriots the Carpenter was a middle age man, though do to all the stress and sleepless nights he looked much older, his gaze was so piercing it was like he was looking straight through you. This man was almost fully absorbed within the abyss that had tried to consume him, he wandered the highways and byways for many a month only stopping in a town long enough to restock his supplies and fuel and move on, he found that as long as he wondered the country he could keep the demons within him at bay. Though for the Carpenter the fates had another plan and for a man who was as cold as iron and thought he could never trust and love again, this man was blind-sided by feelings that he once thought dead and buried. He was passing through a small town within Ohio, it was a Sunday morning and as he rode into town he could hear the church bells ringing and he saw many of the towns folk all dressed in there best entering the church for Sunday service. something stirred within him, as he could hear the sermons of Happy being recalled in his mind. The Carpenter parked his car, grabbed a tie from his back seat and quickly placed it around his neck, tying it quickly and entered the church for the first time in many years. Once inside the church, he looked around and he could see many of the pews filled with the locals, the sent of the incense and candles burning began to overwhelm the Carpenter as sun shined through the stained glass casting a colourful glow over the building. He was initially frozen in a panic and wasn’t sure if he wanted to run or stay, he could almost here his dear friend Happy guiding him so he found an open pew in the rear of the church. The Carpenter just sat there calmly taking it all in, he was seated next to a women not much younger then he was though he appeared much older. He felt a calming aura coming off this women, he just basked in her presence and was lost in the peaceful nature of the service and the town.

       After the service the congregation gathered for coffee and cake, the town gossips began to gather and spread the weekly rumours and the men gathered to discus sports, politics and business for the Carpenter he felt like he was lost somewhere in time. This town doesn’t seem to have ever been touched by the Ghost Dance, Nights of Blood, Civil War and the War of the False Flag. He was confused and couldn’t believe that a place like this even still existed. He again saw the women he was seated next to in church and he struck up small talk with her, once they locked eyes it was destiny and the Carpenters frozen heart warmed and he could feel that she was taken by him as well. They decided to continue there conversation over lunch at the local sandwich shop, once they entered the eatery they took a seat in the rear ordered lunch and coffee and chatted through the remainder of the day. they spoke about everything, though the Carpenter was holding back his past and who he truly was. He found out she was as well a divorcee, her only son had been killed in a car accident and she worked at the local high school as a English teacher and her name being Susan. He told her his name was Edgar and he was recently unemployed after loosing his job in Portland,  his wife divorced him and took the children and house after he was terminated do to cutbacks. Susan offered for him to stay at her house in the spare room, and even offered to help find him a job within the town if he wanted so he could get back on his feet. The Carpenter felt almost compelled to take her up on the offer as he had fallen for Susan only after the first meeting for it was love at first sight for them.

        The Carpenter eventually landed a job at the local high school teaching the in the wood shop since this man has always had a passion for carpentry hence his handle. He was a master wood carver an almost lost art now a days, though for the Carpenter it was very therapeutic and since sleep was almost lost to him, he would spend many a sleepless night carving small figurines with all the detail of one mass produced by a machine in plastic. Not long after he started working for the school they where married one year from the day they met at the same church, Also during this time the Carpenter learned that the town was not connected directly to the matrix and didn’t receive any news from any major broadcasters. he knew he was safe here and for the Carpenter this was a dream come true, He had found safety, love and was finally at one with himself again though this wouldn’t last long.

        As the years went on they started a family and he had become active within the community eventually becoming an elder in the church, elected to town council and becoming a well respected teacher. Though for the Carpenter his past was about to come back to him and those walls he built to protect himself from his own demons were about to come crashing down upon him. The year was 2055 and he was standing in the rear of the auditorium, the students gathered for an assembly. The school had brought in UCAS veterans and recruiters to speak to the student body about the what they called the truth behind the birth of the UCAS. As the Carpenter listened to the soldiers recall false information and propaganda about all the events of the countries past he was becoming more and more troubled by the lies being told and as well he was feeling the memories returning one by one and as if things couldn’t get any worse for the fragile old man the soldiers began speaking about the traitors of the Minutemen and the terrorists known as the Sons of Liberty (Freedom Patriots) these men told tales about these groups with video footage and even some of the older veterans would tell personal accounts with these men. The faculty and student body where left speechless and some of the students needed to be excused do to the emotional overload, The Carpenter just stood there in horror as this once peaceful town that was ignorant to much of the outside world had just been poisoned by the false flag, fear began to overtake him as he remembered about the coffee clutch and the wives of many of towns elite would gather and gossip, his wife had as well become one of the gossipers and this did not sit well with the Carpenter as he saw his much younger face broadcast over the big screen as a wanted terrorist. He became weak in the knees and his stomach instantly turned with nerves, so badly that he was forced to take a partial sick day and return home.

       One he got home, he tried everything he could to calm his nerves from cold showers to his favourite past time of wood carving his hands where shacking so badly that he couldn’t even risk putting blade to wood. He just dwelled on the events of the afternoon, this only added to his nervousness as he realised his wife, and his children where in the audience and would they put it all together for he didn’t raise stupid children and only a idiot would not see the similarities between him and the Carpenter. This was when he poured himself a drink at first it was to help him relax but the more he began to dwell on everything the memories flooded him and his nightmares, sleepless nights and torment returned full force and the Carpenter was once again haunted by all the souls of the men he killed and those he had to bury. His old war wounds began to ache and for the Carpenter he was again living within his own personal hell. He already had anxiety and pain medication that his father-in-law had prescribed him, for the stress he was under raising a special needs child and his nervous nature do to his post traumatic stress disorder that he blamed on being mugged prior to arriving in town. The pain medication came from an injury he sustained to his hand while working on a machine at the school. Now he was adding liquid courage to his medication.

        The Carpenter eventually drank himself into a stupor and past out in his bed only to be haunted throughout the night by the nightmares of Korea and the various conflicts on the homeland. He awoke many times in the night thrashing and screaming, this troubled his wife greatly, and she tried to console her weary husband who was being traumatized by memories and fear. He eventually awoke in the morning covered in sweat and his wife out of the room caring for there child who was born disabled. The Carpenter had four children with Susan his two eldest both out of the house, married and with children they lived in the same town as their parents. His middle child was born disabled and suffered greatly from the disability and needs constant care and supervision, his eldest daughter stays with him while they are at work. The youngest still lives at home and is a freshman at the school where he and Susan work. When the Carpenter awoke, he cleaned himself up, showered and dressed casually since it was a Saturday. He exited his bedroom for the kitchen to prepare breakfast, he popped a few of the pills for pain and anxiety and as he turned the corner he saw his father-in-law sitting at the table waiting for him. This bothered the Carpenter as to why he was here, and what he might have been told, all the elder of the family did was had the Carpenter a prescription and said “this should help with the nightmares”  he also interjected “From what my daughter described of your night terrors and what you were saying, it seems you are showing signs of combat stress and for whatever reason you have , you are hiding something from your family and as your doctor your secret is safe with me.” The Carpenter just took the script and said nothing and left the house to get it filled. On his way to the pharmacy he passed a small liquor shop, this shop he would become very well familiar with over the years. he purchased a hip flask and bottle of gin, this being his drink of choice. Soon the Carpenter would go from drinking a flask a day to drinking multiple flasks and eventually giving up on the flask all together. Though he as well filled the script and began his pharmaceutical and liquid medicating for his memories and for his nightmares. This helped for a little while as the new pills where blocking his nightmares, the anxiety medication allowed his mind to be at ease and the pain medicine and alcohol kept his nerves and his aching body calm. Though he was beginning to show signs of addiction and this was affecting his performance at school and in every aspect of his life.

        The Carpenter was once a loving and caring father, had become very reclusive and deceitful as he tried to hid his drinking and his addiction to the medication his father-in-law was glad to supply him with. Years went by as he tried to cope with his addictions, his fears and the scars that decorated his body, mind and soul. The Carpenter found himself a few times in the hospital for some medication or alcohol related crisis, though with his doctor being his wife’s father he just ignored the signs of alcoholism and addiction patched him up and sent him on his merry way. That was till Christmas morning 2070 when the Carpenter was in the kitchen helping his elderly wife prepare the Christmas dinner for the family, the gifts under the tree and the house filled with the scent of holiday spices and pine. The elderly couple feverishly worked on the meal, Christmas music playing out of the stereo and then the phone rang. The Carpenter picked up the phone to hear the voice of a police officer on the other side, the Officer said is this Edger Nelson, the Carpenter replied Yes and with this his heart began to sink with worry and fear. The officer continued, “Sir you I have some bad news for you, (at this point the Carpenter needed to take a seat, and sat down at one of the kitchen chairs.) please come down to the hospital I will explain there.” By this point the Carpenter was frantic and his body filled with emotions and not knowing witch way was up. He told his wife that they needed to go to the hospital there has been an accident, they shut down the cooking turning off the stove and oven gathered up Eric there disabled son, locking the doors and piling into the car and headed off to the hospital.

       Once they arrived at the emergency room, snow began to fall and lights of holidays glistened on the tree tops. The Carpenter went and got his wife’s wheel chair since she was having trouble walking as worry had rendered her nearly immobile. They might have been close in physical age, but the Carpenter was not suffering the signs of age. His body hadn’t appeared to have physically aged since Colonial gave him that pill many years prior, this is why he was in far better physical shape over that of his wife who hadn’t received the benefits of the pill. The officer who he spoke with on the phone came running out of the emergency room to help the Nelsons. This younger officer had been a student of both Edger and Susan’s and new them both very well and had a ton of respect for them. He helped with Eric as Edger wheeled Susan into the waiting room, The young officer turned to Edger and said, “I wanted to tell you this face to face Sir” There has been a terrible accident (by this point the the officer was beginning to shack, and Edger just stared at him blankly) Earlier this morning Sir, your Daughter, Son-in-Law and grandson and grand daughter were all killed when there minivan was broadsided by a semi. At this point Edger was just racked with pain and he could feel his heart just shatter, tears formed in the corners of his eyes as he looked down at his wife he was devastated at the news, He embraced her in a hug and began to break down. The Carpenter had finely felt a full wave of emotion, though for him the pain was only beginning as he hugged his wife and she was crying on his shoulder. He felt her tense and then go limp, he screamed for a doctor as Susan was having a heart attack brought on by the sheer stress of the news. She was rushed off with the staff working feverishly to resuscitate her. He stood there still in shock as he watched his wife of thirty-nine years vanished out of site with her fate unknown.

         By this point his other two children had arrived with their families, and the Carpenter had to try to explain everything that had transpired and again he broke down and just fell to his knees, throwing his fist into the air cursing God for everything. His son and his eldest grandson helped him back to his feet and they all gathered in a group hug. His youngest son began a group prayer, but to no avail the doctor came out from behind the closed doors with a stone expression on his face. The Carpenter being a veteran knew this look all to well and immediately began freaking out as he could feel a piece of him die and all the warmth and compassion just flood out of his body and the old Carpenter had returned. The Doctor coldly and logically explained that his beloved Susan had just passed away. He just stared at the doctor in shock, tears just erupted though the emergency room as the Nelson’s where devastated on this Christmas morning. The officer offered to give Edger a ride home, since he was in no shape to drive, and the family gathered at the house that was once being prepared for the celebration of the Christmas holiday and now the spirit of the holidays had been shattered and they just drank and made the painful calls to friends and family about the deaths.

         Over the next few days what should have been a happy family gathering turned into a preparations for the funerals of his family. The Carpenter had thrown himself without care into the bottle and was continuing to take his medication. He was barley sober during the wakes and he needed to be in a wheel chair for the funeral as he was to drunk and high on his pills to walk. The Carpenter was just going through the motions, but the machine that he was once before was returning and his inability to properly grieve would eventually shatter what was left of this poor old man and the Carpenter would fall down a very dark rode before pulling himself out. Though he made it through the funerals and just became a hermit, he sent his son Eric to live with his brother and refused to leave the house except to go to the liquor store, he dropped out of everything and started to drown his sorrows and pain with the bottle. Many a night he would go through mixed emotions and his old soldier mind started to rebuild the wall to seal it all away.

        By this point he only saw his family on holidays and birthdays and even then the Carpenter was just a shell of who he once was, his alcoholism and addiction had fully taken hold of this old soldier and he spent many a night contemplating suicide to end the pain, and torment. He even after one drinking binge tried to hang himself from the bannister. He tied the noose placed it around his neck and jumped off the second floor landing, the fall was not far enough to break his neck and he just hung there fading until the bannister broke and he fell to the floor. He tried once more with his service pistol, he dressed in his Sundays best, cleaned himself up took out the pistol and placed it in his mouth and pulled the trigger “CLICK” as the pistol jammed and his life was sparred a second time. The Carpenter by this point was again cursing God for not allowing him to die and end the pain. though he wouldn’t try a third time to end his life. By 2072 his depression had gotten so bad that his family forced an intervention and got there Father and Grandfather help for his addictions, and depression. Though the Carpenter just played to the therapists trusting nature and just told her what she needed to hear, all she did was prescribe an antidepressant and clear him with only a few further sessions.

         It wan’t long before his addictions reared there ugly head, though this time he was smart enough to not show his family and by the end of the year he was back in there good graces as he had learned how to be functional drunk, for the grandchildren they had grandpa back, he had taken back to his wood carving and he was active within his family again. Though his drinking continued in secret and as the 2073 was crawling ever so closer to the dreaded holidays again, the Carpenter just sat in his home decorated for the holidays listening to the radio and as he drank his gin and smoked his cigar, he was being soothed by the sounds of country music for this was December 10th and the Battle of Seattle was in full swing. This town he resided in was cut off from national news and he had no idea of the fate of many of his fellow Patriots and Minutemen. His music was interrupted by a pirated broadcast sent out by his friend and fellow Patriot Snoopy telling about the battle and how Seattle had just won it’s Independence. He heard the last words of the cities hero Waldo, for the first time in a long time the Carpenter felt something stir inside his heart and he knew that what he felt was the call of duty. He knew that he had to pack his bags, put his uniform back on and drive out to Seattle to stand by the side of those that heard the call, for the false flag needed to be brought down and he only hoped that he would be reunited with his fellow Minutemen.

      And so on the morning of December 11th the carpenter put his uniform on, loaded the car with his old gear that he stowed and hide in the basement away from prying eyes. He left a note on the table for his family explaining what he needed to do and why he needed to do it. He also signed the house over to his younger son and left the small town in Ohio headed for Seattle. He might be racked by addiction and pain but for the Carpenter he could no longer sit by and slowly fade away, he is a marine and he is sworn to protect the country and he would rather die a hero on the battlefield then alone in his bed a drunk. The Carpenter ha rejoined his remaining Minutemen and stands shoulder to shoulder with rest of the other old men that all swore an oath and have felt the call of duty thanks to the actions of a brave few.

                                                                                                                                                      Page Written By: Snoopy