Membership: Tribe/Harbingers/Brotherhood
Race: Human
Height: 7’0
Weight: 350+
Apparent Age: 30
Archetype: Cybered Mercenary
Preferred Weapon: Hockey Stick
Runner Song:
Bio: The Stormrider, the man from the north, the beast on the ice…..Taylor Greenspan is relatively new to the urban sprawl but he has made quite a name for himself within the Emerald city. Taylor once protected the Bowery from the dangers that lurk in the shadows and once this Euro Canadian met up with the legends of the Tribe he would find like minded folk with Cowboy, Cutter, Trenton, Grandpa, Coach, Hardwire, Ecto One, Dr.X, and Edison. Taylor would as well spread his wings early in his career as a runner of the shadows as he would be lucky enough to work with many legends of the shadows and eventually find his place among the most elite and prestigious of orders and that my readers is the Harbingers.
Taylor from an early age seemed to be destined for greatness if not on the ice, it would be within the shadows and this comes from his innate athletic ability that would drive him to become one of the NHL’s top guards and most feared opponents for anyone to stare down on the rink. Greenspan being such a large man at just over seven feet in height and biceps that are as large as tree trunks, would be a terror to behold on the ice and yet he would have all the grace of an Olympic level figure skater. Now according to recent reports from Canada, Taylor underwent many years of both hockey skating and figure skating lessons as well as off the ice ballet that many athletes of his level undergo.
Reports from his parents indicate that hockey was not the initial plan for their son, and they dreamed of him being on the Olympic stage getting gold for his prowess as a figure skater. Though his size and his aggression on the ice would prove difficult for their dream to be realised and he would find solace within the hockey rink and eventually professional hockey in the NHL. This though is where Taylor’s life would take a tragic turn and his career would be cut short and he would end up abandoned by those that raised him and forced to enter the Emerald City to find work within our dangerous shadows.
Well his families loss is our gain and eventually his as it seems the fates would conspire to put Taylor in direct connection with his extended and direct family here in Seattle and guide him to a life worth living as well give the young athlete a purpose beyond just skating. Though before we look at his days in Seattle we need to look back to some of the recorded events that would personally guide this premier athlete and set the stage for his new found career within the U.S Elite and Harbingers.
Taylor would enter the NHL in the 2068 season as a rookie point guard and he would prove to be nothing more than an unmovable object on the ice and even being the reason his team the Toronto Maple Leafs would go on to win the Stanley Cup during his second season of 2070-2071. Though with all the popularity around the leagues newest break out star, Taylor would be used and abused by the NHL and his managers. This young phenom was pushed to his limit and forced to play within the Meta Division for the New York Rough Necks seeing the seasons didn’t cross over he would be on the ice all year and for Taylor he would simply embrace the challenge and eventually grow to love the Meta Division more than the more toned down NHL.
Taylor still high from his Stanley Cup championship with the Maple Leafs, he would enter the 2071-2072 season with the Rough Necks at the top of his game and the early standings for that season would say that the Rough Necks where in contention for their first championship in over a decade. Taylor being the only human NHL star to play for the Meta division would bring allot of attention to the troubled division that couldn’t compete with the more aggressive and violent Blood Sport Division that climbing through the rankings and quickly dwarfing all other professional sports and offering very lucrative contracts.
The Blood Sports have normally been simply a carnival side show and watched out of morbid curiosity by many, though with the popularity of the new Blood Sport reality programs on television in 2068. It drove a huge new audience of viewers straight into the troubled division and with attendance and viewership increasing this would bring in the corporate sponsorship’s as well call for many more needed athletes. For Taylor this would be when his life was about to change and all his hard work on the ice would come crashing down.
During the 2071 season team mate Désirée Marchand would desire to find his place within the Blood Division and knowing that scouts would be watching the Rough Necks games closely. Désirée Marchand would use their division games to prove his value to the blood league, he would show true savagery on the ice and no care for the opposing teams nor the rules of sportsmanship that governs the NHL and the Meta League. Désirée would find himself fined, suspended and eventually thrown off the Rough Necks and given a life time ban from the NHL & Meta Division. Désirée Marchand would eventually find his way straight into the most violent of Blood Divisions, the Death League where murder was not only acceptable it was encouraged and the more graphic and gory the slaughter was the more the crowd cheered and the more the athletes where paid.
Well Désirée Marchand’s skill on the ice was top notch and his aggression was on-par with the Blood League, his skill for the Death League was sub-par and within the first period of his debut game Désirée would end up knocked down on the ice and his head smashed and severed from his body. The crowd would cheer as his head was lifted to sky by the other team and simply in a flash Désirée Marchand would be forgotten by the Death League and rabid fans that spawned a need for the ultimate Blood Sport.
Though Désirée’s brother wouldn’t forget his brothers death and he would blame the NY Rough Necks for his demise. Saying they drove his brother straight into the hands of the Blood Division by banning him for playing hockey, well I can’t say that Désirée didn’t get what was coming to him; though the entire Blood Sport lure and the corporate money that flows through it can be stronger than most illegal narcotics. Désirée Marchand was lured to the Death League and he paid the ultimate price, he simply could have entered at the ground level and maybe he would still be alive and others would not have paid for his sins.
Late in the 2072 season the Rough Necks where well on their way to the championship being undefeated in the Eastern Conference thanks to the skill of Taylor. Though for the Rough Necks this would be their last season, during a practice before they would embark on a road trip to face the Panama City Piranha’s to settle the season rivalry of who’s the best and who’s heading into the playoffs undefeated tragedy would strike.
Désirée Marchand’s brother Gilbert would break into the Rough Necks training facility and become forever known to the world as the Zamboni Killer. Gilbert being emotionally distraught over his brothers untimely demise within the Death League would blame the NHL/Meta Division and the NY Rough Necks for his death and dismemberment. According to court records Gilbert would sneak into the teams locker room and spike the water with Valium and simply wait for the players, coaches and trainers to pass out from the sedative and he would embark on the first part of his revenge plan.
Gilbert would don his brothers skates and enter the ice as the players collapsed one by one, he would drag the coaches and trainers out on the ice and leave their unconscious bodies laid out in a row one by one and luckily for Taylor he was the last to pass out putting him at the end of the line. Gilbert would than go and start the Zamboni and slowly drive the ice cleaner out onto the rink and directly towards the unconscious team and officials, all unknowing that death was coming for them and a painful and brutal death at that. One by one Gilbert would run the ice cleaner over the resting bodies creating a very macabre and graphic scene that would leave over twenty people murdered and one forever changed.
I won’t go over the specific details of the murders as they are very graphic in nature, though if you desire to read or watch the events described above see matrix node link <#HTTM99883ZAMBONIKILLER6661336489>. Taylor would be lucky in that he would begin to stir and not become just another victim. Taylor would awake and roll out of the way of the ice cleaner and this would upset Gilbert, as his plan for revenge was about to come crashing down. Gilbert would disembark from the Zamboni and skate over to the still drugged Taylor and enact his vengeance upon him. In the chaos two of the coaches and one trainer would escape most certain death and today still remain scared old men, though for Taylor this would be a fight for his life and he would be up against the odds as he might be bigger but he was heavily drugged and fighting for survival.
Gilbert would be blinded by his rage for Taylor and only one mistake was made and Taylor was able to capitalise and capture Gilbert as the police would arrive and detain Gilbert Marchand. Though Taylor would not leave the rink unscathed and not without months of surgery and years of physical therapy in order for him to live a normal life. In the fight with Gilbert Taylor would suffer a broken hand, shattered knee and have his skull cracked and his left eye partially popped out as Gilbert drove his skate blade into Taylor’s face and well you can guess what happened. It would be only luck that Taylor was able to knock Gilbert over and that the Police where already on the scene.
Taylor would be considered the hero of the day as his recovery from the medication would be the only thing to spare anyone’s life, though for this one time all star player his career would be over as he was forced to under go cyber surgery to save his leg and as well receive reconstructive surgery to his muscles, bones and his face. Taylor would loose both of his eyes do to the intensive damage caused by Gilbert and require further cyber surgery to repair the damage. The cyber implants would place a lifetime ban on Greenspan from playing anything but Blood Sports and even with his coach’s recommendations for him to stay in the league as a coach or broadcaster the NHL executives would see a liability and not a hero and in late 2072 they would void his contract and leave him at the mercy of the insurance companies.
Taylor would require nearly a year of therapy and wouldn’t leave the hospital till November of 2073 except for the testimony he had to give in open court during Gilbert’s trial. The Zamboni Killer’s trial was a media circus and in order to find a impartial jury they needed to try him in Canada within the Royal Courts as the Canadian Media hadn’t run wild with the story and Gilbert’s defence attorney demanded the Canadian side of the UCAS (United Canadian American States) court system as they didn’t have the death penalty and his client was facing death by Gas Chamber within New York.
Gilbert would be found guilty and sentenced to twenty life sentences to be served consecutively and by the end of 2072 Gilbert Marchand would be handed over to the Canadian Department of Corrections. Though for Taylor his story continues and he would be forced to find a new way to survive and new way to make a living, his head coach another survivor of the Zamboni Killer would end up being the only one to show an ounce of compassion for Taylor and help the troubled player through his recovery. Coach Herbert Rodgers would guide Taylor to Seattle and help get this troubled youth settled within Bowery, even though his NHL career might be over the purity of his heart and soul and the good that lived deep in Taylor would never be destroyed and with Herbert’s help Taylor would become a figure head within the Bowery.
Coach Rodgers would eventually part from Taylor and he would have to discover the new city and new life on his own, and with the Emerald City still reeling from the Battle of Seattle (10/12/2073) and the Bowery being the site of many of the blondest conflicts Taylor would simply become another brave soul lending a helping hand and partnering up with the likes of Woodrow McDaniel’s, Arthur Crane, Thomas Kissinger, and others in fighting off the Vandal street gang and protecting the locals from the Black Dragons.
This rookie all star would end up working alongside some of the cities bravest and finest in his first days within the urban jungle and eventually would partner up with the upcoming team of legends the Tribe as they waged war on the Black Dragons and Vandals. Though sadly for Taylor his rookie status would end up causing him to make simple mistakes and his trusting nature would end up nearly killing him on his first official operation and if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of Casket and Graves contacting the Wolf Pack Taylor would have been yet another casualty of the Black Dragons and I would be writing his obituary not his runner bio.
Saved by the Wolf Pack and especially the legend known as Gargoyle, Taylor would quickly be discovered by the Tribe and given a second chance at a family and life. March 2074 would mark Taylor’s arrival into the Tribe and yet his journey within the shadows wouldn’t end here, this one time all star athlete now nothing more than green horn on the streets would be shown the ropes by legends like Cowboy and Cutter not to mention being watched and protected by the Crystal Dragons allowing this green horn survive through his first few months and eventually crossing paths with Colonel Tracy Appleton of the Brotherhood of Mercenaries who would see something special inside Taylor and take the young man under his wing as an apprentice and guide him directly into the Brotherhood’s special operations division the Sons of Odin.
According to Taylor’s jacket he has completed some very dangerous jobs and worked directly with Colonel Appleton on these missions that Taylor would volunteer for and seem to impress the cynical Appleton with his drive and moxy. Do to his work with the Tribe and Brotherhood Taylor would garner the attention of the General Ralph Rivers of the Harbingers and send a request for Taylor to join his elite squad and he would place Harbinger legend Bilbo as his tutor and trainer; ever since Taylor and Bilbo have been as thick as thieves and when you need to find one simply look for the other.
This would grant the green horn a list of contacts and allies that most rookies could only dream of and for Taylor he is now surrounded by living legends and being trained by the best in the game. His work only would get more focused and he would be known on the streets for his drive and his successes, eventually Taylor would earn the handle of Peaches by the legend Samael and be only the third person to ever be given their handle from that curmudgeon. All three of those named by Samael are on the Harbingers, Taylor (Peaches), Jeff (Buttercup), and Maximilian (Sport) this can’t be a coincidence and it can’t be a coincidence that on Christmas Day 2074 Taylor would embark on yet another career as he would enter the US Elite as a recruit and quickly prove that he is more than a dumb hockey player as he would be placed in a command role within the recruits and continue to impress his trainers.
Though one can say their is a bit of nepotism here as Taylor is friends with Colonel Appleton, Lt. Colonel Max Yates, and related to Captain Douglas Greenspan and General Donald Greenspan all members of the US Elite and Max and Douglas are Harbingers as well. Though even if he received special treatment do to friendship and family connections his records show that he has more than earned it. Taylor has glowing reports from I-Core Executive Director Wilhuff Palpatine and Medical Division Commander Colonel Wilbur Gravel, these report as well as others from Colonel Kissinger, and Lt.Colonel Norris Brooks. Young Taylor has shown that even a former professional athlete can be turned into a soldier and both respected and admired by his fellow recruits.
The story for Taylor is just beginning though for this young man he has already lived a lifetime and suffered great tragedy as his parents disowned him and everyone he knew from his days in hockey either dead or moved on. Though within the streets of Seattle he found solace and a new family, he would find a new home and purpose for his life and that is within the US Elite and now Private First Class Greenspan aka Peaches has become the face of a generation a man that proves that anything is possible if you work hard and show true moxy.
PFC Greenspan we will be watching you and your growth from green horn to veteran, you have already shown more heart than most people your age in the wake of tragedy and warfare. You are a soldier I am proud to have within my command and one that I am proud to have the honour of training, I hope one day to sit down with you in the officers mess and swap stories over a mug of ice cold beer. Keep up the good work PFC and here is to a new and bright future within the US Elite……Now Recruit put the device away and hit the books, before the books hit you..That’s an order!
US Elite Naval Division CAPT. Dover Davis
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