Colonel Roy Gunderson (Colonel)

 Membership: D-Day Tribe

Race: Human

Height: 5’10

Weight: 185

Apparent Age: 60

Archetype: Physical Adept: Circle Unknown

Preferred Weapon: DAOD Combat Assault Shotgun

Runner Song:

Bio: Some say this man is the master of war, others say he is the father of conflict and in any case they are correct, the man known as Colonel is simply and architect of war and this man has profited of the suffering of others for generations; for when diplomacy fails their is one man you can count on and that man is Colonel Gunderson. Through the years he has gone through many faces and many personalities but the one thing does stand true is his dedication to his men, and his family; for Gunderson all the money in world is nice but without friends and family you have nothing. The other aspect of this commander is that he actually has integrity and honour, though his honour can be left up to question do to him being an opportunistic profiteer. Well that was the Colonel of old and now we have one that has shed his skin once again and transformed himself into yet another version of the old man he truly is, the Colonel has witnessed the total degradation of the city he called home, the total destruction of his family and the deaths of many of his men during a brutal conflict within the underbelly of Detroit.

For the Colonel blames himself for the deaths of his men as well all the lost souls that perished during the UCAS’s nuclear strike on Detroit, for if he hadn’t persisted in his campaign to free the city from the hold of the usurpers and rallied the people to rise up against the government maybe Detroit would still be standing. Though he also knows that if he hadn’t pursued the conflict and rose the banner of freedom above the city, the innocent lives within Detroit would eventually have succumb to the wills of the usurpers; so this man was caught within a catch 22 situation and he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Colonel Gunderson might consider the events of Detroit a blunder, but in actuality he was triumphant and rose the spirits of an entire city, he saved millions with his quick thinking and has brought the events of that fatal evening to the forefront where the UCAS can’t hide it any longer and must assume responsibility for their unlawful actions.

Gunderson is in my eyes a war hero and a man that needs to be placed in the same category as Winston Churchill, General Patton, and Theodore Roosevelt as a man of action and one that regardless of the odds stood up against an impossible enemy and rose victorious. He forced the UCAS to resort to extremes to defeat him and all that did was inspire an entire generation to rise up and join the fight for freedom. He might not have been able spare Detroit from it’s ultimate fate, but he spared countless other cities from suffering the same fate by bringing the war to the public outside of Detroit, by rescuing the countless lives and allowing the message of the Motor City to be spread from coast to coast.

I know this man has had a coloured past and one that can be questioned for he was nothing more than a merchant of war, bringing forth trained soldiers to the battlefield for a price and supplementing any militants militia for a handful of credits and some twisted favours. Though if it wasn’t for Colonel Gunderson and his privatisation of the mercenary world and his seeking out soldiers with a code of honour and one that they could actually put to paper and not diverge from unless required to by situations outside their control. He might have created a system that would in the long term cause much harm to many, he would as well create a system of checks and balances for those that sell their services within war. He would put together a system that would direct many of the professional mercenary guilds to date and even enter the world of the shadows. It was his vision that we all currently follow and it is this man that we can thank for restoring the honour of the mercenary world.

Colonel Gunderson has never rose above the rank of Colonel within both the military and mercenary world and that was by choice, he knew that as a colonel he could remain somewhat closer to his men and not forced to sit behind a desk hidden away like some prized possession. he could be out their with his men and commanding them directly from the field. Though as the battlefield would change and Gunderson would age he would be forced to accept his status as commander and the need for him to remain safe, as he would receive a near life ending injury that would cause his leg to become partially paralysed and cause Gunderson a great deal of daily torment and pain. Cybernetic replacement was not an option and neither was a clonal limb as the injury was directly correlated to his spine, thus making damned sure he was reminded daily about his war wound and the fragile nature of humanity.

Though for Gunderson not being in the field would be heartbreaking and he would have to command from behind closed doors and a video screen, though that was until his company would return to Detroit to find the city in turmoil and facing destruction from within. For a war torn hero like Gunderson the tides of war had taken there toll and he was a broken man, though being home again was all he needed help with his recovery. Though to find Detroit in a state of anarchy and the city just a shell of itself he was left with a hole in his heart and he knew that he needed to do something to restore order and return the city to it’s former glory. Gunderson gathered his men that would come to be known as the Detroit Company and ask for their assistance in taking on such a monumental task, he wouldn’t force any of his soldiers to work against their wills and he only wanted those that felt the call of duty and the sense of honour. He would be surprised when he wouldn’t loose a single soldier and many being from Detroit would gladly lay their lives down in defence of the city and her people.

Well for Gunderson the conflict was nothing different than the many he would have profited off in his younger days but this was different in one aspect, as this was a fight for his home, a fight for the people and a fight for freedom from the usurpers that have firmly rooted themselves into power and needed the people to suffer under their reign. Gunderson was about to embark on a mission that was bigger than he was and he wold eventually be heralded as the Liberator of Detroit. Though during the initial conflict many thousands of citizens and soldiers would loose their life, and even with their blood weighing on him Gunderson would continue to press the offensive with his fellow soldiers. He would fight day after day alongside hi brothers and sisters in arms and he would grimace through the physical pain that ravaged his body in order to bring freedom to all citizens of Detroit both from within the tribes and within the regular wage slaves of the over city.

Gunderson would be praised by the tribes and their warlords for his military genius and his dedication to the fight, though he would also know that these men would gladly stab him in the back the second they sensed a moment of weakness and with his leg getting worse and the need of a cane in order to walk properly and not crumple over in pain or from the sudden weakness and numbness it was only a matter of time before the other tribal leaders would make their move, the UCAS was on the verge of surrendering and the usurpers frantically trying to remain in control. Gunderson would get wind of a coo that was brewing within the tribes and workings of the usurpers once again reaching down into the underbelly where they didn’t belong. Gunderson would have to make a quick call and one that he would not make easily and that would be to have those that have sworn allegiance to the enemy needed to be removed and on a cold winters evening Gunderson wold gather his remaining Detroit Company now being referred to as the D-Day Tribe; he would approach them with his decision and again he would give them the option to back out. Gunderson was relieved to find out that those that remained within his tribe would gladly back him and agreed with his needed action, for this unit was not known for wet work and it went against any sense of honour they held; but for the D-Day tribe the need to remove these traitors needed to be done and so they would lower their principles and embark into the tunnels to bring down the traitors hoping that their predecessors would be more willing to side with the tribes over the usurpers. Though for Gunderson he would be left with an empty feeling inside knowing he had resorted to dishonourable tactics to take down a common enemy, though his gambit paid off and the new warlords would be more than willing to back stab the usurpers and once again Detroit was untied as one tribe.

Gunderson would be proud to watch as the revolution would be more than successful and the people of the Motor City would eventually feel the caress of democracy, freedom and liberty and it would seem that Detroit would once again rise for the ashes and return to it’s rightful place as a city of America. Though for Gunderson he was still remaining vigilant as to lower ones guard would only welcome defeat, as the city was slowly healing and the spirit of the people restored a dark cloud once again loomed over the city as the UCAS would once again begin to invade, this time he was prepared for them and the people of the city would look to Gunderson for guidance and leadership during this new period of conflict, though something didn’t feel right to him and as his intelligence officer and friend Major Campbell would begin to warn him about odd troop movements and the placing of blockades and barricades on many of the highways and bi-ways out of the city. He would take a gander onto the radar and notice a large movement of military vehicles heading straight towards Detroit, Gunderson’s prior military knowledge would allow him to figure out what those trucks where and exactly what they where hauling. His face went white when it dawned on him that the UCAS was about to launch a nuclear strike on the uprising city to send a very brutal and poignant message to any city that even dared to rise up like Seattle and Detroit.

The Colonel wold do his best to send out the call for evacuation, and the abandon ship order to the tribes as the fires of hell where about to rain down upon them. According to his calculations they would have more time than they actually did and with many of the roads blocked and the city within a panic, he knew the causality rate would be astronomical. He once again called for the evacuation of the city and keeping the emergency broadcast playing on a loop as he and the remainder of his D-Day Tribe would board their vessel in the great lake and set off across the waters towards New York State. All Gunderson could hope for was that many of the citizens had escaped and they had headed his warnings, though for his own family that he had would not be so lucky on that evening as they get separated during the evacuation and only his youngest daughter would remain by her fathers side. His wife and children would fail to follow him to their vessel and return to their home to gather a few more mementos, well for Gunderson was in a panic and for his family wasn’t aboard and there was nothing he could do, he had to give the order to break from the port. He would receive one last phone call from his wife as she was entering there home to gather a few things, telling him that she had forgotten their wedding album and she figured he had the time to return to the ship, he was able to tell her he loved her one last time before the signal was lost and the fires of nuclear warfare erupted in the horizon. Gunderson knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that all but his daughter had been lost and the UCAS was to blame.

For this man the ultimate act of evil that he witnessed wold forever change him and turn this battle hardened warrior into a man that was dedicated and dutiful to a cause that was far bigger than even the fight for Detroit’s independence. He would be a messenger and herald of the events of that day, he would one of a handful that would be able to make a difference in the course of the war against the UCAS and he would vow to seek justice for all the innocent lives lost on that dreadful New Years Eve of 2073. Gunderson would eventually return to the wastelands and ruin that where once the Motor City and through radiation suits and pills he would traverse the scared landscape for the first time, and with a heavy heart he would bare witness to the catastrophic destruction and loss of life. The D-Day tribe would once again set up shop within their beloved home and from deep below the ruins they would put into motion their plan for justice as the city was forever lost and could never be restored as the bombs they dropped on Detroit where far more powerful than anything discharged within Chicago to deal with the bugs, these where actual warheads and not just radiation bombs. Detroit was locked into a nuclear winter and the cities radiation levels where beyond deadly, only magical wards placed by government magicians would keep the fallout from spreading to other nearby cities.

The people of the nation would be lied to by the government as they claimed it was nothing more than a bug situation and they needed to cleanse it before it became a pandemic, though for the survivors and witnesses of the event knew better. They remember seeing the mushroom clouds in the distance and never once with Chicago was a mushroom cloud ever reported. Detroit was punished with not just one but three separate strikes that would turn the entire city into a nuclear wasteland and ruins of it’s once self; the heart of the city was silenced forever on that faithful day in the ultimate act of evil punishing the city and her people for rebelling against the system. Sadly for those that had committed this act it could not be so quickly brushed away, their patsy the Shepherd had escaped his assassination attempt, the quick thinking of Gunderson had saved countless lives and created millions of eyewitnesses that could not be rebutted and the D-Day Tribe would survive the events of that night. They would become the spirits of vengeance and the ghosts of the past hellbent on teaching those in power a valuable lesson of swift justice.

For Gunderson he stands at the top of the chain once again, his men look to him for guidance and his daughter looks to her father for support and protection. He might have been reborn, but he is still broken and mentally tired, he has seen the worst the world can offer and survived to tell the tale and he blames himself for all the souls that perished on that evening feeling as if if could have done more to save them. Gunderson might be internalising the blame and seeing Detroit as his greatest failure, when in actuality he truly is the hero of the day and his name is praised throughout many homes of the UCAS as the survivors only have him to thank. It was his compassion and his dedication that spared so many lives, and allowed for many families to continue on, this is one man that can truly be considered a hero and a man worthy of being idolised and hailed; I want to thank you personally Colonel Gunderson for if it wasn’t for your quick thinking and your emergency broadcast over all stations with the help of Socrates I wouldn’t be alive today and neither would my wife and children have mad it out of Detroit. Thank you again and I salute you as the hero your truly are Colonel Gunderson, I will forever be in your debt and the truth of that evening must be shared with the world.

Page Written By: Survivor of the Nuclear Holocaust within Detroit 12/31/73 NF-NF