#CharacterCreationChallenge – Day 20 – Heroes Unlimited (Palladium)

I own a lot of Palladium books from various settings. Say what you will about the ruleset, Palladium’s publications *drip* ideas. But I’ve never gotten to play one until recently.

The same DM who wanted to try the 5E “Lite” game started off wanting to run an online Heroes Unlimited game set in and 80s-action-movie universe. It lasted two session, but not because of the system. No, instead, it was because of That Guy. In this case, That Guy wanted to be the center of attention and tried to do everything he could to break the session. When called on it by the DM, I got to witness a Grognard Rage Quit. I’ve been playing since red-book Basic D&D, and this was a first. That kind of left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth, and we agreed to shelve it for now.

Too bad. I got inspired, and my character was a hoot to play!

After getting over the stark terror his presence usually generates, the first thing someone notices is just how ugly Jackson Gaunt is. But ugly in a strangely handsome way. Jackie, as he prefers to be called, is eight feet tall and skeletally gaunt. He bears a striking resemblance to Lurch, Ruk, or Mr. Homn. His skin is reddened and leathery, feeling cool to the touch. Jackie’s black eyes and cheeks are sunken, but his face is redeemed by excellent bone structure. He is as bald as a cueball, however. His overall appearance gives the impression of someone who has lived most of their life on the range and weathered everything that was thrown at him. This makes it hard to determine his age. But it is only when he removes his shirt and cowl that anyone notices the significant bionic reconstruction Jackie has undergone.

Jackie always seems slightly bemused by whatever is going on around him. He seems very slow to anger, taking any ribbing good-naturedly and even returning some of it. While always willing to assist a teammate, he also has no tolerance for those not pulling their own weight. Old hands do not mention it, but they recall this is when the big man loses his temper.

Jackie appeared on the scene several years ago, coming out of the Dakotas, carrying the name Taconite. He has established himself as a prodigious strongman, a vicious melee fighter, an excellent scout, and a fair jack-of-all-trades. Taconite prides himself on being one of the premier metahuman mercenaries in North America. He prides himself on always upholding his end of the contract. But if you do not hold up your end of the contract, nothing in the firmament above nor in the underworld below will save you from Taconite’s wrath.

All of which is true. From a certain point of view.

Taconite is not an Earth native. In fact, his real name cannot be pronounced in any of the Earth languages he is familiar with. Taconite was in training to become one of the Federation’s elite First-In Scout. The Scouts are the highly trained and heavily enhanced operatives tasked with monitoring primitive, non-Federation worlds, determining if any threats to the Federation exist there, and evaluating the likelihood of future Federation membership. But halfway through the training cycle and enhancement process, Taconite was pulled out for questioning by Internal Security. He answered as honestly as he could, but IS did not like something about those answers. So Taconite was detained “for further observation during through the duration of the emergency.”

But no crisis had been made public. In fact, the Federation was currently going through a rare period without internal scandal or external upheaval. There was nothing to suggest what Taconite might be involved in. He languished in an Internal Security holding facility.

Then everything went pear-shaped. The holding facility was assaulted by attackers of unknown origin, with most of the employees and detainees slaughtered. In the confusion, Taconite panicked and escaped custody. Internal Security assumed springing Taconite was the point of the attack and declared him an enemy of the state.

Half-trained and only partially enhanced, Taconite rabbited. He connived and scammed his way off planet, then stole a small scout ship under repair. In a daring escape, he piloted the damaged vessel out of Federation space, eventually evading most of the pursuit. But damage to his vessel finally forced Taconite to seek shelter on a small, primitive world the locals called “Earth.” He successfully avoided both extraterrestrial and terrestrial guardians, but he did not land unobserved.

Taconite brought the fatally wounded scout ship down in the Bad Lands. It would never fly again. His landing was observed by a local. And that’s when Taconite learned, in his bones, the First-In Scouts’ Prime Law: Primitive Don’t Mean Stupid. The local was curious about the main from the stars, and the man from the stars needed a native guide. An accord was struck.

Whistling Jim, a Lakota rancher, took Taconite in and taught him enough to get by in American society. Taconite, in return for this training, helped out with some large projects Jim had been putting off and offered some spatial surveys of Jim’s land to help optimize his ranching practice. Both made a game of avoiding “government men” while disassembling and disposing of the scout ship. After six months and a rough winter, Jim judged the big alien able to make his way in the greater world without fear and wished Taconite well. Freed from any local obligations, Taconite made his way west, settling in the Pacific Northwest under the assumed identity the two had built for him and establishing himself in the metahuman mercenary community.

If Taconite was going to be stuck on Earth, he might as well put his training to use evaluating it and helping deal with any threats to it. After all, Earth was his home now, for the foreseeable future.

Taconite – Jackson “Jackie” Gaunt