Douglas Howell (Grandpa)

 Membership: The Tribe

Race: Human

Height: 5’9

Weight: 180

Apparent Age: 70

Archetype: Street Samurai

Preferred Weapon: Ronin Assault Rifle

Runner Song:

Bio: Grandpa the old samurai that has been in the private sector for many a year before he simply abandoned his post as chief of security for Aries Arms and wandered into the wastes to live a simpler life. Douglas hails from New Jersey and ventured west after a lengthy career within the US Marine Corps where he served in the Navy JAG Office as a Criminal Investigator and eventually worked inside the NCIS Division for a majority of his time within the military eventually retiring not long after the birth of the UCAS. Douglas would leave the military at the rank of Colonel and pack up his belongings and move west finding himself within Seattle and looking to start a new life at an advanced age.

Douglas would be alone within the Emerald City seeing his family would become yet another victim of the Tragedy of 2018 and he would spend his savings burring his wife, five children, ten grand children and three great grandchildren; eighteen funerals later Douglas was bankrupt and living pay check to pay check with on his pension to carry him forward. Though do to the painful memories he would be left to deal with at his home in Virginia and the nation turning against those that lived a patriotic life, he would simply walk away cash in his pension, sell his home and move west and well Douglas Seattle is glad to have you.

This man would be recruited right away by Aries Arms for their security division and with his nearly forty years of military and law enforcement experience he was a perfect candidate to replace there retiring security chief. Grandpa’s life would take a turn for the better as the nearly broke old man would become one of the highest paid private security officers within the Emerald City and one that would drive his grief deep into the pit of his stomach and focus fully on reinventing the corporations security protocols.

Within his first decade with Aries Arms Douglas would turn the Night Errant Security force into a serious threat to any and all law breakers and the irony is not lost on me that he is now a seasoned runner. During the days of the founding fathers and next generation there was a reason nobody ran against Aries Arms and his name was Douglas Howell. Now many jobs where done against Aries Arms but none of the criminals ever remained free or alive for long once Captain Howell came to work the next day and began his investigation.

During this time was the rise of the Security Wars between the Red Samurai, Knight Errant, Lone Star, and the Seattle Police Department with three of the above fighting for total domination over the Emerald City and the Seattle Police Department simply wasting away under the might of the corporate power and money. Douglas was given the direct orders to abolish all the others and make certain that Knight Errant was the last man standing. Well we know from history that during the era of 2050 through 2063 this was the case and many good people would end up in the grave from the work of Douglas and Knight Errant’s officers.

How could a good man, a great grandfather and widower go from man with the golden heart to the heartless killer well simple answer. Douglas’s grief was destroying him from the inside and his cyber implants had stolen what soul and conscience he had left in his body. The once weekly church attending Christian had walked away and erased his name from the “Lambs Book of Life”. During those days he was simply known as the Dark Knight and when not at work he was hunting the streets and bringing law breakers to justice using one of his many unique toys and this vigilante didn’t care if the victim lived or died as he dispensed street justice.

The more he sold his soul for cyber the more Aries Arms would pay him and quickly Douglas would end up one of the richest men in Seattle and quickly his middle class protestant values would be erased. Grandpa would become a shell of what he once was and a man that would quickly make a name for himself in both the underworld and the corporate world. This man could go from donning his suit and tie during the day bouncing between boardroom meetings and conference calls to street gear at night stalking through the barrens hunting the worst of the worst and sending them to an early grave.

With Knight Errant at the top of the security game and the Dark Knight one of the most feared hunters on the street it would be a wonder what could bring this partnership to an end. Well one thing would allow blood to flow back into Douglas’s blackened heart and let this old middle class grandfather see the light and that would be when General James O’Brian would end up as the Chairman of the Board for Aries Arms. Suddenly everything that destroyed Douglas’s life, killed his family and caused him to travel west would show up within his new life and what’s worse end up being his boss once again.

Old feelings and memories would course through Douglas’s mind and soul and for the first time in over two decades he would walk into a church for Christmas Eve family service and the smell, sight and sounds would overwhelm him and the hardened samurai would end up burying his head into his hands and sobbing as all the grief he shoved deep down inside him would come floating to the surface. Douglas would end up speaking with the pastor Reverend Christopher Carroll and over the next six months the damage done by cyber and corporate greed would be undone and the human inside Douglas would return. With a flick of a switch Colonel Howell was back and he was on a plane back to New Jersey to visit his families grave and ask for their forgiveness, so on August 17th 2068 Douglas Howell would retire from Knight Errant but not before creating some serious problems for the company to deal with in the coming years.

Well for Douglas he would sell everything he built up once again and this man that survived wars, tragedy and the Federal Immorality Project would give up the high life for the simple life. He would walk right out of the city and band up with the tribes, his money and experience would be invaluable to Blaine and Grandpa would simply become the tribal chiefs most trusted ally and friend. The two men would share similar values and eventually grow very close as Blaine would begin to look towards Douglas for advice in dealing with the tribes and as well how to handle the ever growing troubles with those in the city. Seeing Douglas might be living in the wastes, he never abandoned his sport coats and suits from his previous lives and with his multiple lifetimes of experience in diplomacy and bureaucracy he would be the go between tribal member for Blaine and well according to the records from the time he would be very successful and his advanced education would make him the man that many would go to for teaching and education and once again Grandpa would have young ones to raise and pass on his wisdom to.

Though this would be short lived and tragedy would once again find Douglas and again it would strike those he cared for deeply as General O’Brian would learn of Howell’s location and focus his hunt for Grandpa into the waste’s and decree that all tribal wasters where outlaws of the UCAS and should be brought to justice. Douglas and Blaine would try to defend the tribes and arm them the best they could but this would be for not as even with Grandpa’s advanced skill the numbers game would be an issue and he would end up left for dead in the wilds as his dear friend Blaine was taken into custody by O’Brian’s men on December 10th 2073.

Fellow tribesman Dr. NJ Rivers would find Douglas wounded and dying within the dirt and carry the wounded man back to camp and as the war within Seattle raged on NJ worked through the night to save Douglas’s life and after nearly twenty hours of surgery Howell would be in the clear and taken to the recovery tent. Though once news of the victory of the rebels would reach the tribesmen, it would be bitter sweet as they would also learn that their friend and leader would meet his end. The wastelanders would learn of Blaine’s fate and for Grandpa this would hit him very close to home as he would simply remember his family and now many within the wastes lay dead and he will be facing months of recovery before he could take up arms again.

Grandpa would try to take up the mantle of leadership but his wounded state and his more diplomatic approach would fall on deaf ears with many within the tribes and with them looking for a a strong leader one that would take them to the next level they quickly began to follow tribesman Parish Ansel. A man that never agreed with Blaine and Douglas’s diplomatic approach and thanks to the deals put in place by the Harbingers the wastelanders would be outfitted with more military equipment and weapons than they ever had before. Parish would end up being voted into power and the tribes would become known as the Saviours from that day forward; For Douglas and others this was more than they could handle, they didn’t wish to become a militia and hunt the city folk that dared to enter the wastes and even before he was fully recovered Douglas would once again simply walk away and enter the city once more.

Douglas would band together with like minded wastelanders Cowboy, Hardwire, Ecto One, Trenton, Cutter, Coach, Dr. X , and Edison. These big hearted wastelanders would dump their lifesaving’s into a new home and base of operation’s within the Bowery and join under the banner of the TRIBE. They would focus their intentions on helping the poor people of the district and help restoring it, seeing the city had abandoned the Bowery after the Battle for Seattle 2073. In a very short period of time the Tribe would establish themselves as the protectors of the people and they would be seen as the modern day Robin Hood and the Merry Men as they stole from the rich to give to the poor.

The Tribe would and still does work for basically nothing and they giveaway more than they take, Douglas and his advanced security knowledge would allow for the Tribe to set up many medical clinics and establish relations with the regions protectors the Guardian’s a street gang under the command of Anthony Edwards. Edwards was one of the lucky youths that Douglas actually detained under the mask of the Dark Knight and sent to prison instead of the grave and well afterwords Grandpa made certain that Anthony would be taken care off and not sent up the river for life or worse. Once Anthony would be released the two would establish a kinship and for Douglas it was more of a Adoptive Father and Son relationship. Once the Tribe was born this connection would be restored and Anthony would become the Tribes greatest ally and contact, the two would work in tandem to restore the Bowery and to aid the people.

The Tribes direct involvement with the districts youth and orphanages would be under the request of Douglas and the others would simply agree and as they established medical clinics for the poor they as well established underground schools for the youth and Douglas, Wilford,and Arthur would take the helm educating the regions youth as well helping the adults with their GED or skill training to allow them to escape the life of being a wage slave. The Tribe did wonderful work in the early days and they still are currently, though a domino affect of events would force them out of the Bowery and put many they cared for in danger.

The Tribe now resides on the Waterways Military Compound and aligned with the Harbingers seeing these modern day Robin Hood’s would become the direct target of the Black Dragons and the Vandals. Their advanced skill would be outmatched by their lack of supplies as they spent almost all of there money on medical supplies, household goods, clothing, educational supplies, and items of comfort for the locals of the Bowery and might of their new enemies would be to much for them to bare.

Douglas and the others would simply leave the region in order to spare the people yet another tragedy as their enemies hunted for them specifically. Now the Tribe might have left the region physically but that doesn’t mean they are not out their daily protecting the people and keeping up the clinics and schools they established. Now that they don’t have to worry about there own lifestyle needs they can focus 100% on the region and for Grandpa he has once again picked up the badge and become a man of law and order. The Tribe might not have wanted a life within the Saviours under the command of the Woodsman, they are more than willing to aid and even join the US Elite.

According to General Rivers the Bowery is now under the protection of both Lord Millburn of the Steel Legion and the US Elite and the Tribe members within the Elite (Douglas, Wilford, Arthur, NJ, Rutherford, Taylor) are needed to be consulted before any operation goes off in the Bowery. These men have sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to the district and her people and they know it better than anyone. Douglas works with the Criminal Division of the Elite and will bring his decades of government and private sector experience to this fledgling order and for him his focus is still on the people of the Bowery.

 Shadow Writer