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Del Harris
Mechanic
"It was aliens. I seen'em!"
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Physical Description: Del is
six feet, five inches tall and one hundred eighty-five pounds with longish blonde hair and blue eyes. He looks shorter
than he is though because he tends to walk with his shoulders hunched and head down, peering through his hair. Del moves
with long quick strides making it hard sometimes for people to keep up.
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Personality/Roleplaying Tips:
*Del
hates crowds and is rather paranoid
*Doesnt like attention and is very quiet
*Generally non-aggressive
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Skills and Abilities:
*Outstanding
mechanic and engineer
*Adequate pilot and driver
*Excellent
shot with pistol and rifle
*Basic hand to hand combat skills
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History: Del
grew up on Persephone with his older sister Mary in a rather normal, upper middle class family. Dale and Catherine Harris
owned a small clothing boutique where they designed, crafted, and sold their own line of clothing to discerning clientele.
These two creative people passed their creativity onto their children. Mary, like them, enjoyed art and design, but
Del was drawn to words and music. Even more disturbing to his parents, Del was far more interested in the workings of the
sewing machine than the sewing itself.
By high-school, he was a full blown gear-head. While his parents focused their
attention on Mary and her impending wedding, angst ridden Del was generally ignored by his family, who didn't understand
him and didn't really like him. Left to his own devices often, Del flew his supped-up shuttle in illegal drag races, drank,
and skipped a lot of school. Despite all that, he managed to keep himself out of serious trouble until the day before
his eighteenth birthday when he was arrested for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. As this was
also the day before Marys wedding to Dante Bishop, the family was understandably upset. Embarrassed and at their wits
end, Catherine and Dale decided to teach Del a lesson and scare him straight by leaving him in jail until his arraignment.
With both child and parents now hurt by the other the hearing was an emotional affair with the result being Del escaping into
the military rather than getting probation, family counseling and rehab.
It took Drill Instructor Julian Red Pepper
exactly ten days to break Del mentally and emotionally. Reducing the boy to a sobbing, snotty, mess one night and helping
Del to sort through his emotional baggage, Red began the much more difficult task of building the boy into a man and soldier.
After that night, Del began to love his training. He began to add mass to his large frame, eventually tipping the scales
at a ripped 245. He qualified expert on rifle and pistol, and moved through the courses like a cat. But it was Del's mechanical
aptitude and his love of engines that really made him special. On his down time, he could always be found in the hangers chatting
up the mechs or poking his nose into this craft or that, his palms literally itching to grab a wrench and get dirty. During
chow, he would snatch someones clean napkin to write down an idea. He kept notebooks full of design ideas and diagrams. Red
really had no choice but to send him off to Grease Monkey U and drink to the loss of a good rifleman.
Sixteen weeks
in the class room and another eight on a training ship saw him ready for his posting to Stingray Class; Benders Run, running
troops from the core to the rim for training exercises. Del stayed on the Run for four years, rising to the rank of
Chief. He was well liked by the crew who loved his bizarre sense of humor and by the Captain who always seemed to have extra
fuel to sell on the black market thanks to Dels efficient engines.
Del was also able to reconcile with his family,
developing a warm relationship with his sister and a guarded friendship with her husband. Everything was going well for him,
until the crash.
No one really knows what happened. It was weeks before anyone knew that it HAD happened. Benders Run
had landed her cargo of troops on Belladonna on schedule and departed back to the core on schedule, but never arrived at her
destination. Her charred wreckage was found on Belladonnas sixth moon, the computer core and telemetry recorder incinerated
and the only survivors being Del and his new pet, Loki the rat. The investigators, thrilled to have someone to grill about
this tragedy were stunned and dismayed by Del's explanation; It was aliens who caused the destruction of Benders Run.
Furthermore, these same aliens took him to their ship and performed experiments and tests upon him.
The mental ward in Arrick military hospital on Persephone became Del's new home. Since it was obvious that no one
believed him, Del became increasingly paranoid, seeing aliens everywhere and oft times becoming violent. The doctors were
able to control him eventually through a combination of drugs and privilege award and denial. At this point, Del's main priority
was keeping his friend Loki. He would do anything to keep the rat with him. Drugs. Psycho therapy. Shock treatments. Any and
all just to be with Loki. The doctors told his family that the trauma of the crash and the loss of all his shipmates had destabilized
his mind and his recovery would be long and difficult.
After a year inside, Del was deemed sufficiently recovered and
non violent to be on the outside first in a group home, then later on his own. He eventually moved into an apartment in the
same building as his sister and brother-in-law and found a third shift job as a fleet mechanic for a sanitation removal corporation.
Except for a brief relapse when his sister and parents died, Del has been a functioning albeit slightly creepy member of society
since then.
His brother-in-law (Dante Bishop) became the owner and Captain of the privateer ship Lotus for the Alliance.
The Lotus was an experiment for private contracting of law enforcement for the Rim. Del signed on as mechanic. Life as an
Officer was good for Del. It gave him structure, while allowing him to be close to Dante.
During a routine supply stop
on Patella Drift, a gang of assassins tried to murder the Lotus crew. Many were injured, but Dante was killed in the line
of duty.
With the loss of his only family, Del retreated into his mind. A relapse of unknown proportions. He was taken
to a facility on Persephone. Now, for the second time in his life, Del must be trained to deal with humanity.
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