Ten Forward Application

Your name or online alias: Paul
Your email: exacerangutan@gmail.com
Another preferred means of contact: exacerangutan
Character's Full Name: Jacqueline "Jackal" Egret
Character's Journal Name: major_egret_msfsod
What would you like your character's tag to be?: "jackal egret"

Answer the following questions in 800+ words put together...
Is this character an OC or AU set in a canon world? If so, which canon?: Canon OC from Zone of the Enders
Which canon point?: 28 years after Zone of the Enders 2: The 2nd Runner (more information on available on this Future of ZoE wiki)
Character's background (their past and present, including applicable events in other games you may have played them in):
Jacqueline Egret was born in 2177, the year after UN recognition of Martian independence, to two of the most admired heroes of the Martian War of Liberation, Ken Marineris and "Dingo" Egret (ZoE people have Gundam names, what can I say). Her father was hailed as the Hero of Mars--having essentially prevented a madman's attempt to destroy the Solar System and won the support and respect of UNSF military officers, even Earth couldn't ignore his call for Martian sovereignty--and her mother had been instrumental in making his fight against BAHRAM possible with her inside knowledge. Following the fall of BAHRAM, Jacqueline's parents helped to establish an independent Martian military organization, guiding it to stamp out the last fragments of BAHRAM resistance around Mars.

As the daughter of two flag officers, Jackal grew up surrounded by the military. She knew dozens of high-ranking officers before she could speak; she was weaned in her mother's office, and her favorite childhood toys were models of the new-generation Orbital Frames coming into production as unmanned Frames were being phased out. From a young age, Jacqueline was clearly quite a tomboy, and as she grew older (somewhat to her parents' chagrin) this tendency only enhanced. She tended to be quiet and intensely focused on whatever drew her interest, at least until her temper or pride was piqued, which her father did at every opportunity--especially by lavishing her with pretty nicknames which she hated; although she got on well with her mother, her relationship with her father even from kindergarten began growing mutually combative and antagonistic. "Dingo," being a complete jackass, absolutely thrived on this. And, in a way, so did Jacqueline, as the air of never-ending competition spurred her on with an ever-greater drive to accomplish enough to make him shut his mouth for once.

When Jacqueline was 10, she declared she would become the next great Frame Runner, and that her father--one of the greatest Runners of his era--would teach her. For a few weeks, her parents tried to dissuade her (diplomatically, on her mother's part, and by being a snarky jerk, on her father's part), but as she tended to do when she was serious about something, she just dug in her heels and insisted more fiercely. Eventually, her father caved--but, not really wanting his daughter to dive into the military, he decided to make it as frustrating an ordeal as he could manage so she'd want to give up on her own. So he went out and bought her a LEV to train on: a broken-down junker of a civilian construction LEV. Her first task would be to get it not only working, but up to Regional Armored Militia regulation standards; he'd help her with heavy lifting and learning to do the repairs, he'd only work while she was working, and she had to keep up her grades in school, as well.

Very much to her father's chagrin, Jacqueline gritted her teeth and set to work with some griping but no sign of quitting. Her social life (such as it was) suffered, but between her difficulty fitting in with kids her age and having already dedicated herself to outlasting her father's attempts to discourage her, there was no way she would back down for that. It took her more than half a year of persistent work and intense frustration, but with her father's grudging assistance, she managed to get the LEV running relatively smoothly, and even more grudgingly, Jacqueline's father began teaching her to pilot. Despite his extreme reluctance to admit it, she proved to have a considerable talent, and learned quickly over the next two years. With obsolete military surplus acquired through her father's connections, Jacqueline continued upgrading her LEV, which she dubbed "Wolverine" after a small and ugly but disproportionately fierce Earth animal, and before she was thirteen years old, Wolverine had passed RAM inspection for combat-worthiness; then, without telling her parents, she went on to pass the RAM piloting exam, as well. She badgered the RAM commander--a retired Martian Space Force officer about her father's age--and her father until they reluctantly acquiesced to let her join a scouting patrol, for training purposes. The RAM unit took to calling her "Jackal" (she was ferociously against "Jackie," which her father called her to be a jerk, and it worked as a play on her father's call sign, "Dingo"), and she developed something of a fondness for the nickname.

Jacqueline continued piloting as a scout with her RAM. As a militia, largely formed as a sort of citizen's patrol against LEV-equipped criminals and Radical terrorist activity, the RAM trained together regularly, but only rarely got involved. Twice in Jacqueline's three years, her unit was involved in very small-scale engagements, and Jacqueline was always under explicit orders not to get directly involved. She didn't like standing by, but she understood the importance of the overwatch and recon tasks assigned to her. All of this was on her record when she applied with her parents' somewhat grudging support to the Olympus Mons Martian Space Force Academy's early entry program, and with the combination of her excellent placement exams, existing piloting experience, and shining recommendations from respected officers, she got in easily. Once in the Academy, she expected to find some camaraderie--she had been something of an outsider in high school, with only a small cadre of friends, and even they considered her an odd duck. However, at the Academy, she was not only new, but her pedigree and her early successes made her rather unpopular with those she unwittingly upstaged, as well as their friends. By the end of her first year, rumors began to surface that Jacqueline was given special consideration because of her father (this was true, but only in that he, then Commandant of the Academy, had passed down instructions to never cut her any slack)--and as her figure grew out, the rumors increasingly insinuated that she gained special treatment in other Ways.

Offended and enraged, that was the last straw, for Jacqueline, who was not at all satisfied with the administration merely clucking and bemoaning the rumors. Her personal honor, that of the Academy, and that of the MSF, had been besmirched. With the aid of a small but loyal cluster of friends, employing the counterterrorism strategies they were learning in class, Jacqueline tracked down the junior-year cadet who had started the rumors, and settled the matter herself--she was kept company for her month in the cadets' stockade by the knowledge that a black eye and an arm broken in three places had made their point, and extracted a public confession. In the next year, she spent a week in the stockade, and then two weeks--first for decking a senior cadet who tried to make a move on her, and then for breaking his arm four months later, when he failed to get the message and tried it again. Her disciplinary problems dropped off sharply, after that. She also began using Jackal as her call sign in flight combat training, and it stuck with her.

Despite these marks on Jacqueline's record, however, she began to earn an officer's respect from her peers. She wasn't always well-liked (and was often seen as an abrasive hardass), but they learned to take her seriously in everything, and to appreciate if not entirely understand her unwavering fairness: at all three of her disciplinary hearings, she had explained her reasons, taken full responsibility even when others had assisted her, and asked specifically to be given the full standard punishment. They also learned to respect her consummate skill, her dedication to excellence, and her ferocity in battle which all but paralyzed more than a few fellow cadets during simulated combat. During off-seasons, she would visit her parents and challenge her father and old RAM compatriots, showing off everything she'd learned, and reveling in the fierce competitiveness. When she graduated from the Academy 4th in her class as a newly commissioned Lieutenant at 20 and applied to join the Special Operations Division of the MSF, the unit commanders could see from her record not only her excellent marks and talent, but that a rock-solid sense of integrity, responsibility for her actions, and unyielding perseverence were her defining characteristics--characteristics highly desirable for elite officers. Once accepted, she underwent months of elite training including heavy physical conditioning, marksmaship, advanced combat piloting, demolitions, hostile environments survival, covert operations, interrogation resistance, and advanced Martian Armed Forces Close Quarters, Unarmed, and Improvised Combat.

Within a year in her MSFSOD unit, Jacqueline distinguished herself in several ground-side antiterrorism operations, earning medals and commendations for combat excellence, including her ace status. For her undercover involvement in foiling a Radical plot to attack the UN Embassy building in Central City, Nereidum County, she was awarded the Treaty of Tharsis Medal for service to Mars' peaceful future, as well as the Exemplary Soldiery Award, a Crimson Band for injuries sustained in action, and a promotion to Captain. After another year of service, seeking a station with more flight combat operations and greater challenges, Jackal transferred to antipiracy and antiterrorist operations in the Ceres Belt, the policing of which Earth had mainly relegated to Mars after Independence. Stationed on the FMS Viking, first ship of the Viking class of heavy assault carriers, she served in a number of highly successful antipiracy operations; when faulty intelligence led to her team getting cut off and more than half the team killed or seriously injured, Jackal withdrew them to a defensible location and kept them together until reinforcements arrived, earning a promotion and further decorations for her leadership, as well as another set of scars. Following a later operation, she was again generously decorated after suffered several knife wounds, including a punctured lung, during close quarters combat with two opponents while covering an incapacitated teammate; after recovering, she banished any lingering concerns over her health by leading her squadron to cut off a pirate counterstrike against the Viking, verifying a staggering 17 personal kills in one sortie, and earning her Red Ace status for exceeding 50 verified kills.

Barring some incident, she was very well on track to escape from even her father's far-reaching shadow. At the time of being pulled in, she was on her way home on periodic mandatory leave, bringing her flight suit along since she often pilots Wolverine with her local RAM when she's supposed to be on leave.

Character's personality:
Jackal is and has always been an odd duck. Even as a child, she tended to be very serious, and has always smirked or grinned far more than she ever smiled. She has a broad streak of Patton in her: she excels at soldiering, and she expects other people to either excel at it as well, or do something else and keep out of the way. She respects that civilians aren't soldiers--it's a cornerstone of her thinking on military ethics, in fact--but when civilians play at soldiering and take it less than seriously, or soldiers fail to act the part, her patience wears out very fast. Beyond this, few things infuriate her more than bad leadership and sexism; even being hit on crudely grates on her nerves, especially when it comes from fellow soldiers, who should know to treat her as a professional. She also strongly believes that romantic involvement tends to make men try to act like action heroes and get themselves and/or others killed for gradiose gestures, and without hesitation would ground or transfer a pilot under her command who couldn't keep it professional. Jacqueline is the type of person to have a handful of friends for whom she would cough up blood without flinching. She takes her promises deadly serious, and is liable to be offended if other people don't. She tends to forgive wrongs quickly, but only when they've been properly rectified and the accounts are made equal. She only rarely lets anyone call her "Jacqueline," and "Jackie" or anything similarly cutesy is absolutely unacceptable; she expects to be treated as an adult and a professional, and to be denied that, especially due to her sex, is infuriating.

Character's skills/abilities/powers:
Jacqueline is a fully-trained elite military operative in a unit specializing in antiterrorism and antipiracy operations during peacetime, and unconventional and covert combat operations in wartime, analogous to the British SAS or American SEALs if they were air force rather than navy. On top of extreme physical conditioning and psychological endurance and discipline, this training covers a broad range of non-combat skills including hostile environment survival, microgravity to high-gravity experience, interrogation resistance, escape, and evasion, infiltration and covert operation, electronic attack and infiltration, on-site procurement, demolitions, and emergency field medicine. Her operational specialities are Combat Frame Running (that is, mecha combat pilot) and Sniper, and has nearly five years of continuous field experience, interrupted only by mandatory minimum leave (during which time she kept training with her Regional Armored Militia), and wargames.

Jaqueline holds the highest level MSF certification for Orbital Frame combat and second-highest level for marksmanship. She also holds the highest degree in MAFCQUIC (Martian Armed Forces Close-Quarters, Unarmed, and Improvised Combat) accessible without demonstrating personal contributions to the development and refinement of techniques in training and application, a degree above that required to take the instructors' certification course, although she hasn't done so. At Jacqueline's level if MAFCQUIC, she has mastered advanced unarmed, rifle, pistol, and knife techniques, disarming and nonlethal suppression, advanced improvised weapons (starting with belts and moving on to practically any tool or handheld object to enhance lethality), psychological tactics, and employment of environmental factors; subtleties of ranging, tempo, and body types are the major points of refinement.

In addition to her field training and combat skills, Jacqueline has basic machine repairs and maintenance training and more than a decade of experience tinkering with her LEV, Wolverine, enough to work with and effectively command machinist specialists, but not to replace them. As an officer, on top of tactical and strategic training, Jacqueline also has some basic skills and experience in administration and management, although the latter is in a regimented military context with highly disciplined operatives; she may have to relearn a lot to be an effective manager of civilians. For her civilian studies at the Academy, she specialized in political science and history, although she prefers military history.

Any special equipment your character is bringing along? This includes weaponry, magic items, etc.:
Jackal would arrive only with what she had on her person while traveling back to Mars from the assault carrier Viking on which she's stationed.
ME-101L CLS (Controlled Lethality Sidearm): A somewhat snubnosed, bulky pistol, the ME-101L is one of several dozen pieces in a field testing study for the Controlled Lethality Sidearm R&D project inteded to develop weapons which can deliver variable degrees of lethality to target, particularly for use in counterterrorism operations. Employing Metatron technology based on the weapon systems of Orbital Frames, the CLS can be fired in reduced lethality mode, delivering a low-density chaotic energy pulse that disrupts electrical and other power transfer systems, including the central nervous system. At full power, the weapon fires a Metatron-generated particle burst that dissipates into the target; this results in a larger impact pattern than a bullet and almost no blowthrough on a human-sized target, demonstrating overall effect on target comparable to a high-caliber rifle with recoil similar to a 22 pistol and minimal danger to bystanders. For reference, it's (very) roughly comparable to a phaser with modest recoil and settings up to 11 or 12.
MA74C97 Flight Suit: Light enough to be worn under fatigues or a dress uniform, the standard MSFSOD flight suit is made from three layers of PBCM (Polymer-Bound Carbon Mesh) armor material with high parallel conductivity and low perpendicular conductivity, meaning heat and electric charge spread over its surface much more easily than they pass through. The material is highly resistant to puncture and laceration, as well, although it doesn't provide much cushioning, comparable to a bullet proof vest but with better coverage and far less bulky. The flight suit includes an impact ceramic helmet with an integral tactical assistance computer that allows the suit to link with other compatible hardware to establish communications and project relevant data in the helmet HUD, including weapon status, IFF, scope display, etc. A liquid crystal layer in the helmet autodarkens in response to abrupt increases in light level, to prevent flash blinding. The collar module can be unsealed and removed to make the flight suit concealable under clothing.
Military Uniforms: Jackal packed her dress uniform (in case of getting dragged off to some official military function) and fatigues (in case of anything else).
Basic Gear: Jackal has an impact ceramic field knife (designed so normal wear-and-tear to the blade tends to continually sharpen the edge); a vapor canteen; an assortment of energy cells with inductive power taps so they can recharge off of exposed power conduits, avoiding the need to find standardized ports; hacking equipment with inductive signal taps, mainly designed for accessing security networks and overriding locks.

Why do you want to play this character in Ten Forward, and what do you plan to do with them? Jackal is familiar with space travel (if not interstellar space travel), advanced technology, life aboard ship, and life in a (somewhat) Star Fleet-like organization, so she should fit in at least somewhat. She'll definitely want to find work as soon as she's allowed to, though, as un-civilian as she can manage.
What is your character's greatest flaw? Jackal does not handle civilian life well at all. Personal interaction outside a professional context kind of weirds her out, and knowing she's bad at it, she avoids it whenever possible. At home, she spends her mandatory leave in training. She's probably going to handle that introductory month of leisure time about as well as Worf would handle being off duty for a month.
Describe your character's family (whether family by blood or by choice). How does your character feel about them? What did your character learn from them? Jackal's parents were both heroes in the Martial War of Liberation, and particularly her father. However, her father is also an unrepentant jackass, and she doesn't get along with him at all, as much as she respects his skill as a pilot and his knack for earning soldiers' loyalty. She's much closer to her mother, although Jackal is always a little aggravated that her mother had a few Damsel in Distress moments. She does love them, in her own way, but Jackal isn't really the type to show cuddly feelings anywhere near the surface.
What hobbies does your character have? A lot of her time goes to training to keep her edge--especially so when she's on some kind of mandatory leave. She does however take an interest in history (especially military history) and political science, and reads quite a lot on those subjects. At home, she had models of various military hardware and a handful of antique collectable pieces.
Your character wakes up in the middle of the night in panic from a nightmare. What was the nightmare? Most likely a dream-twisted memory of one of her antipiracy operations that went badly due to poor intel, and more than half her team was seriously injured, and several killed in intense, close-quarters fighting.

Writing Sample #1: Universal Destiny TDM thread!