((Apologies in advance if I severely screwed up any Ziian history. There wasn't much on the timeline to work with, so I did my best.))
Name: Jan Heinrich Yaylor
Gender: Male
Age: 63
Nationality: Republican
Zoid: DiBison
AIM: jadefalcon136
Prologue (skip me if you just want to get to the bio)
As Liam developed more of an interest in Zoid piloting, he began to see promise in the idea of having a team prominently sponsored by ACI, with the wheat-sheaf logo splashed over armor plating and on fluttery little flags. Unfortunately, he and Tamar just wouldn’t make a very good team – too few pilots, not well rounded-out. They would have to find more pilots and Zoids somewhere, but Liam really didn’t want to blow any more of the corporate budget than necessary on this idea, which was honestly just a lark and possibly a way to get a foothold in other markets outside the Republic.
He and Tamar were walking through the atrium of ACI’s offices discussing this very problem when a certain pair of ears overheard. The long-time gardener, who had been taking care of the landscaping and watering the grass as long as Liam could remember, politely spoke up. “Excuse me, sir, but I might just be able to help you out there... y’see, I’m getting on in years and I want to have one more good adventure or two before I check out for good...”
Liam and Tamar pulled up a piece of floor and listened...
By the time they left that night, Liam knew that the ACI team was a go.
Personality (normal bio stuff starts here)
Jan is generally easygoing, without too many cares remaining in the world. Sixty-three years of life experience have taught him to be grateful for what he has, to be tolerant of what others think and say, and to find the positives in every experience. However, he is a strickler for detail in his own life, believing wholeheartedly in the time-worn phrase “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” The landscaping around ACI certainly bears this out, and is always well-weeded and vibrant.
He additionally believes that “young ‘uns” today are too rushed and too hurried, flitting to a thousand different things and leaving half of them undone instead of taking time to do a few tasks to their fullest degree of completion. Jan is the type who takes time to chat to the clerk at the grocery store and to invite his neighbors to dinner every Thursday night. Never, of course, would he try to impose his views on anyone else (unless you were to sit down for a good long listen), so when he sees Liam rushing around with a folder full of papers, a briefcase in his other hand, a portable comm unit at his ear and a sandwich bag clenched between his teeth, he just smiles and shakes his head, and continues pulling weeds.
For Jan well knows that only age will teach them the value of slowing down... once, not so very long ago, he was like that too...
History
Jan was born in New Helic City in NC29 during the war against the Trillistani. He grew up in a lean, pinched Republic suffering under war taxes, lowered morale and heavy combat losses. War vouchers and ration coupons were the order of the day, and making it to the end of each month was something to celebrate in and of itself. As a young boy, Jan watched the Zoids of the Helic Republic march off to war, dreaming that someday he would take his place in one of them. He played with plast-molded action figures and set up mock battles in his room, sometimes leaving the battle-lines in place for days at a time as he decided which ones lived and which ones did not. In his imagination, of course, the Republic always won – sometimes trampling over the Trillistani invaders and sometimes burning a path to the heart of the Guylos Empire.
When the Trillistani were finally hunted to the edge of extinction and the war came to an end, Jan – 14 at the time – was in truth a little disappointed. Now, it looked like he would never have the chance to pilot a Zoid into combat. He was convinced that the Guylos Empire and the Helic Republic would never go to war against one another. Of course, he was too young to pick up on the overtones of conflict between the two superpowers and other city-states. For a boy growing up in a family of seven with just enough money to feed all the hungry mouths, Zoids were inaccessible except through the military. He secretly hoped that there would be another conflict, one in which he could join, win a bunch of medals, get a nice high rank and be rich and famous the rest of his life.
As the ancient saying goes, however, “Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true.” And indeed, in NC48, the destruction of Midnight City plunged Zi into wartime once more. The Republic reopened military recruiting and 19-year old Jan joined straight out of secondary school (he’d entered school a year late to stagger the costs of schooling seven children). Like most new recruits, he had no bloody idea what he was getting himself into. Military life wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting – all drill and getting yelled at and running Zoids through obstacle courses. He hadn’t taken into account the training needed to run a military Zoid, as well as the training to survive if something went pear-shaped and the training pounded into their heads over and over that You must obey orders.
Still, Jan stuck with it – although military life hadn’t really been what he’d expected, at least there were always friends to talk with (as long as the sergeant wasn’t listening), plenty of food to eat, and the opportunity to work with real Zoids. He relished most of all the mock battles waged between their recruit units, where he quickly gained a reputation as a fierce and relentless fighter. He didn't naturally take to strategy or overly-complicated tactics, preferring straight-up fights and preferring most of all to leave most of the decision-making to others. Still, his excellent performance and the fact that the Republic was critically short on officer material landed him a comission as a second lieutenant in the 50th Dragoons.
The Dragoons served in a support role for a good portion of the first part of the war, usually drawing escort duty for military supplies or counter-insurgency patrols. Most usually, the Dragoons saw little or no action, but when they did it came with a vengeance -- mostly in the form of Helcats and other stealthed Zoids used by the Guylos Empire for guerilla strikes. Once, a Guylos transport full of Zoids touched down a short distance away from a cluster of Republican mining towns, and Jan did a fine job of holding his unit together until the rest of the Dragoons could arrive to mop up what remained of the Guylos forces. Here, Jan earned the promotion to First Lieutenant although he downplayed his involvement in the battle, saying "All I did was yell loud enough that everyone stopped running around for a moment."
NC 56. Jan was once more running a routine sweep when he noticed three contacts closing on the Dragoons’ position. BIG contacts. He quickly ran his modified Gun Sniper back to camp and raised the alert. The entire 50th Dragoons mobilized, ready to confront the threat of the three unknown trespassers. Unfortunately, no conventional unit could ever be ready enough, for the attackers were none other than the Geno Trio – three Geno Breakers, specially modified to work together as a unit. Jan braced himselves, and the Breakers struck...
When Jan awoke, he found himself in a military hospital with only the memory of returning to camp to alert the Dragoons to the hostile contacts. He learned over the course of his recovery that the entire unit except for him and another private had been wiped out by an unknown enemy or enemies wielding charged particle weapons. In a period where the war seemed to be turning against the Republic, there was an incredible tangle of paperwork and unit shuffling and inquiry into his activity that kept Jan away from active duty. Jan stewed, growing increasingly embittered, and demanded to be returned to active service. After almost a year of paperwork limbo, Jan returned to the battle lines in a DiBison with a heavy strike unit, the 34th Fusiliers.
In the meantime, the combination of the Geno Trio's ferocious assault and the huge amount of resources the Empire had committed to the latest offensive had driven the Republic back into its own former borders. All of the gains the Republic had made earlier in the war were erased, and then quite a bit more. Morale in the army and among the population was desperately low. Jan raged in private at his commanders, wishing dearly to once more press the attack against the Empire and maybe, just maybe, get some payback against the SOBs who had destroyed his previous unit. Finally, High Command cut through the tangle of paperwork, declaring that procedure had to give way to expediency, and the 34th was sent into the heart of the conflict. Jan's wish had come true.
Jan was instantly thrown into the fray, where he killed and killed with no regard for mercy or decency. Any downed Imperial Zoid could expect nothing from him but a faceful of mortars or a Focused Megalo-Max through the cockpit and core. His kill count continued to tick upwards – only a select few aces on the Republic side could match the sheer carnage he inflicted on Imperial units. For several years, Jan’s life became a nightmare tangle of battle, refit, battle, refit, battle, refit...
The turning point came when the Fusiliers were deployed to Imperial territory as part of a retaliatory strike on Guylos soil. However, the Republic’s planners had done a poor job of plotting supply routes and calculating likely force strengths, and in short order the 34th found itself overwhelmed with a huge number of Imperial units. Jan didn’t care. Screaming curses against the Empire into his comm, he sent wave after wave of explosive mortar rounds and Megalo-Max Blasts into Guylos lines. When ammunition failed, he still trampled and gored enemy Zoids until his DiBison’s legs were finally clipped out from under him by a CPC.
The scant few survivors of the 34th’s attack were taken prisoners of war, and in that time Jan learned a shocking truth that penetrated his years of military conditioning: his enemies were people, too. He got to know several Imperial pilots and the POW wardens quite well. Serious doubts began to crop up in his mind about whether he had been doing the right thing all along, after all.
Two years later, in NC64, the war finally came to an end and Jan was released back to the Republic. The first thing he did upon his return was to resign his commission as a soldier, although the Republic agreed to keep his DiBison in military storage if he ever needed it or wanted to pass it along to his children. At age 35, Jan returned home for the first time in what seemed like ages, to find that his father had died from an untreated medical condition and his two brothers had perished during the war. Jan threw himself into providing for his mother and sisters, taking several jobs that kept him working twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Although his family expressed concern that he was working too hard, the truth was that Jan didn’t feel he was working hard enough. For whenever he had time to sit and think, the ghosts of all the pilots he had brutally killed during the war would return to plague him. He worked until the point of physical exhaustion so that he would not remember his dreams, and strove to stay active in every possible waking moment.
Five years passed as Jan continued his untenable lifestyle of eat, work, sleep. Despite taking yet another part-time job, bringing in enough money for what was left of his family to move into a much better house, his mind still reverted to the years he had spent at war, from the bloody annihilation of the Dragoons to the final, terrible battle in the Empire. At last, he could take no more and went to a friend at one of his jobs, a receptionist in an office where he worked as an equipment troubleshooter and technician. Denise listened with a sympathetic ear as he poured out the story of his military service and laid out the unresolved issues that were haunting his life. She helped him come to terms with what was bothering him, and by the time he could sleep the whole night through and take a break for a drink without suffering flashbacks, something had grown between them that was considerably more than friendship.
In NC70, 41-year-old Jan married 36-year-old Denise, and for the first time in his life, Jan truly felt content. Although she couldn’t bear children, simply having someone he could trust and having enough money to comfortably live was enough for Jan. The demons of his past retreated for good and he began to get better work, sometimes taking night classes at a local community school to learn new skills. There were trials and struggles enough, to be sure, but nothing out of the ordinary and all able to be overcome with Denise’s help.
All good things must come to an end sooner or later, and in the case of their happy household it was sooner than it should have been. Twelve years after their marriage, in NC82, a trailered Gustav ran Denise down as she was coming home from the store with a jug of milk and some bananas. Her death caused a brief surge in public anti-Zoid sentiment as it had been owned by a Team Silverblade, transporting Zoids from a sanctioned match to a repair garage. For several months, Jan wrestled with the old hatred from his past, which threatened to be redirected onto all Zoids as the cause of his pain and suffering. He had learned from war, however, that bitterness and anger at others would solve nothing – and from Denise that bitterness and anger at himself wouldn’t, either.
Jan sold the house, moving into a much smaller apartment. As he no longer needed to support his family (his mother had died some years earlier, and his sisters were all out on their own), he took a simple job as a gardener at a company called Alexander Comestibles Incorporated, or ACI. The work was occupying enough that he didn’t slip into boredom or dark recollections, yet relaxing enough that he could weed and trim and water for hours every day without growing weary. There, for a good ten years, he tended to the plants, offering a friendly smile to every passing visitor and watching as young Liam grew up in the company. He began to feel stirrings of an old call, though – the call to embark on some grand adventure before age swept him away. And, as luck would have it, what Tamar and Liam proposed seemed to fit the bill just fine... Jan began preparations to move his old, faithful DiBison out of military storage to the ZBC arena.
Appearance
Jan is overall a fairly lightly-built man, age and exercise causing him to have very little in the way of body fat. He has kept very well in shape and is almost obsessive about taking his vitamin supplements, though, so he remains in excellent health and physical form. Although by no means as strong as he was in his military days, Jan is still capable of lugging a fair bit of weight. High-duration exertions like running a long way or carrying a heavy load constantly do tend to wear him out, however – his is sixty-three, for crying out loud! His hair is all an even grey-silver shade, and there’s still a fair bit of it left. Sometimes he’ll even tie it into a short braid, but usually not. His eyes are a fairly dark shade of green, and his skin is pretty evenly sunned tan in color.
As far as clothing goes, Jan is usually seen in a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of overalls stained an almost even grey-brown from years of grease, dust and dirt, and a sturdy pair of leather boots. Sometimes he favors wearing a red or blue bandana around his head, although that will vary from time to time. The only concession he makes in the cockpit to his own safety is to wear an open-faced helmet, otherwise not particularly caring if he gets hurt. He refuses to carry any dedicated weapons, although he has a multi-tool with a sharp knife blade and a pretty nasty-looking trowel on him at almost all times. Them there’s tools, not weapons.
Fine, save for a few things.
The Empire and Republic declared war on each other within months of Midnight City's destruction. There was already open warfare for over a year before the Geno Trio made their debut.
Only officers and select noncoms piloted zoids. The enlisted men, such as the privates, were either infantry or support staff. The only exceptions were the crewmen who served aboard Whale Kings, but they weren't exactly zoid pilots. A Gunsniper was most likely going to be in the hands of an officer, and the DiBison definitely in an officer's hands. For simplicity's sake the Republican and Imperial militaries use the American ranks, whilst the Trillstani use the British ranks.
He had no real leadership ability, so he wouldn't be turning down many promotions. This isn't Anime Military Lite; people are promoted based upon tactical and leadership ability, not piloting skill and how much carnage they single-handedly weave. He'd be a Captain, maybe a Major when he got out.
Noted. I'll do revisions here in a bit.
The wording of the Death Saurer incident is a little vague, though. It attacks and destroys Midnight City in NC48, while the Geno Trio is released in NC56. The timeline states "After a long and bloody war..." So, eh? Was there a 6-year war between the Empire and the Republic, followed by an armistice, followed by the Geno Trio and the outbreak of another war? Were they at war the entire time? That wording could be a little clearer. Once I get that clarified, will revise.
Military snafus noted. My apologies, my best reference on the Ziian military comes from MMM. ...yeah.
EDIT: First round of editing done.
I really didn't find it all that vague, and neither did the other folks who proofread it for me. If there was a peace, it would've been mentioned. That's the important type of stuff that doesn't get forgotten.
And as I said during AIM, the war wasn't exactly what it looked like from the timeline. The Empire was losing by NC 56, and the Geno Trio was simply the standard-bearers for the revitalized Imperial army. In the beginning it was something akin to WWI, with little gains -- but all of those were Republican -- and then after the Geno Trio it quickly turned into the Republic's Vietnam, with even a Russkie Draft to supplement the squishied Republic military. The Republic really lost that war. They managed to convince the Empire that it was a stalemate.
And also like I said over AIM, the Empire was moving too fast to build fortifications. If anything, they would've installed garrisons in the cities and captured Republican fortresses. So you'll have to fix that little bit.