Origin/Background:Its 1987, and President Ronald Reagan was struggling with the fallout of the Iran-Contra Affair. In May, the U.S.S. Stark is hit by two Iraqi missiles killing 47 sailors. In June, Reagan challenges Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Then came October, and in an instant, for Captain Jason Rollins the world changed forever.
Black Monday was the day stock markets plummeted all around the world, and the day Iran learned harboring meta-terrorist would have a price. A month earlier they had sponsored an attack in Brazil. It was covered up in the news as a radiation accident at an abandoned hospital. The truth was far more sinister. In response, the U.S. in conjunction with British and Israeli forces conducted a top secret surgical strike against a number of meta-terrorist training facilities.
During this multi-pronged attack, Captain Rollins flew with a squadron of F-16s into northern Iran. Operation: Tartarus Valley called for a strike on a training camp near a base near the Urmia Lake Bridge project. Reinforced by the presence of two American metas, a dozen air force Fighting Falcons commenced its attack run in the morning’s pre-dawn light.
In the first two minutes of the battle half the squadron’s jets and one of the ‘heroes’ had gone down to the villains. Somehow they knew. Whether there had been a leak or by some other means, they knew. Only with the Falcons working as a team with the ‘hero’ were any of them able to survive. They were able to neutralize all but one of the aerial villains. That one in particular was causing havoc.
Someone needed to shut the door so the others could withdraw back into Turkey air space. As the senior surviving member of the squadron Captain Rollins ordered the Falcons to escort the wounded hero home. It was simple math. That hero was a national asset, and his jet was damaged. It likely wouldn’t have made it back home anyway. Out of missiles, Jason bore down on the pursuing villain guns blazing. At the last second the meta-terrorist waved his hands and the last thing Jason saw was a shimmering pool of light ... and then darkness.
. . . and then stars.
Six months . . . and twenty-five years later Jason Rollins is walking across the ECU campus to his Media and Modern Culture class. He was distracted at the moment. After this morning’s training exercise with the BSI, he had decided maybe it was time. He had just moved to Empire City, but he could see what the absence of the Guardians was doing to the city. They needed help. The kind of help he was uniquely qualified to offer.
“Crap … I’m going to need a new uniform.”Personality/Character Traits:Born and raised on a small farm by his grandparents in the midwest, Jason grew up in a community far from the hero-filled cities of the east coast. But heroes come in many forms, and for Jason, it was his grandfather, a veteran of World War Two. More through actions than words, the old man taught him the importance of values such as honesty, courage, and humility. These principles are what make up the very core of Jason Rollins personality.
As a child he had watched Nixon go through Watergate, and as an adult, Reagan deal with the Iran-Contra Affair, but no one man leads the nation, not even when that one man is the President. Jason may no longer be able to actively serve in the military, but he swore an oath over twenty-five years ago to protect his country from enemies both foreign and domestic. To his last breath, he with faithfully serve and protect its people and the principles they stand for.
The country has changed a lot in the last twenty-five years, in some ways it has stayed the same. The Colts were the same sad team then as they are today, and a good grilled steak and beer still taste best in the backyard with friends and family. What friends he had back then had all grown old now, and his grandparents died a few years ago. The world had rushed full speed ahead over the years, and now he takes university classes hoping someday he can catch up to it all.