Charlie Judge

**Charlie "Judge" Judge III** is an Alliance Marine and Operative in the Council Recovery Corps.

## Biography

Charlie Judge III was born on the Ides of March, in the year 2165 to a humble middle-class family in Dripping Springs, Texas in the Hill Country. His father, Charlie Judge Jr, and his mother, Mary Ann, raised him in a typical religious southern household, saying grace before every meal and attending church on Sundays. His family always stressed keeping the faith, and Judge pretty much never questioned it as he grew. Judge Jr. was known as the town mechanic, owning a skycar and motor vehicle repair shop where he regularly brought his son to learn. Charlie III was, from early childhood, interested mostly in baseball and his father’s business, bonding with his family as they watched the big game every Sunday night after supper. In addition to their catholic faith, the family religiously cheered on the Austin Rangers in the International Baseball league, where the team represented southern North America in the UNAS division. His childhood hero was a closing pitcher for the Rangers, Ryan Leiter, from whom he received an autographed baseball at a home game, a prized possession he holds onto to this day.

This made the young Charlie want to start pitching in the local little league, where he joined his team the Dripping Springs Steeldrivers. He showed a remarkable pitching talent for his age, prompting his father to pool together whatever money he had to have him play in the local select travel team, the Mustangs, as he reached his teenage years. In the time between his baseball commitments, he trained to be able to take over the family business with his father, working the weekends as an assistant repairing sky cars, farm equipment, and other motor vehicles and appliances. The town sent in a wide range of equipment as well, giving the young Charlie valuable experience in repairing a wide array of mechanical objects. He continued this routine all the way up and through puberty when his father noticed his son’s impressive stature start to develop from a combination of workouts, baseball, tiring work at the mechanic shop, and a notoriously monstrous appetite, an appetite helped by his mother’s classic southern cooking.

In his preteen years, he also picked up a guitar, with his playing becoming a fixture of his household and carrying on into his adulthood. He always enjoyed playing for his friends and family around a campfire on the weekends.

When he was just 15, his father got him his first “real marines’” rifle from a local friend who fought during the first contact war and wanted to get rid of it: The old M7 lancer. Charlie was fond of its wear and tear, seeing it as signs of a real rifle carried by a real warrior. Although he knew the clip technology was superior, he liked how he never had to go through the trouble of reloading it. He keeps this rifle as his go-to weapon and has become quite proficient with it specifically, given it being his only rifle using mass-effect technology. The rifle itself has many home-done improvements to it, such as stippled grip tape on the pistol grip of the weapon, in addition to a spot-welded compensator on the muzzle.

When he was 16, he met his best friend playing for the Mustangs, Johnny, his catcher. The duo grew close as they went as a tandem to close out games in tight situations. They were inseparable by their love for the game and the closer role, and they still keep in touch to this day. He also pitched for his high school team, the Frontiersmen of Davy Crockett High School, where he and his teammates became a posse of friends. He and his friends were quite popular in his high school, and Charlie enjoyed the attention he received, although he never let his ego become too inflated.
One game where the duo’s chemistry was put on full display was a semi-final game for the regional championship, where the two were subbed in to close the game out and protect a 1-run lead. They succeeded in getting one out after a lead-off walk and a thrown-out runner at 2nd base on an attempted steal. After this, Judge had some energy left and decided to throw as hard as he could to ensure the next two outs. They ended up striking out the rest with only fastballs, and not a single one dipped below 96 mph. His arm was sore for 2 weeks after, but Judge doesn’t regret his decision because of the stakes and the knowledge that Johnny would catch perfectly for him.
By that point, Charlie’s physique was an anomaly on the team, with his teammates on the Mustangs and Davy Crockett High School giving him nicknames such as “the big unit” after the late HoF pitcher Randy Johnson. As he grew bigger, his pitching repertoire was unrivaled, regularly clocking his fastball at 90 mph and over, a huge anomaly for his age bracket, in addition to a slow knuckle-curve in the 70s and a changeup with arm-side break in the 80s. By the end of his time with the Mustangs and the Frontiersmen, his ERA rarely went over 3.00, and had over 150 saves by the end. However, his walk rate sometimes made him a liability at times, walking about 12% of the batters he faced. This problem persisted until he was too old to play in the league when he turned 18, never turning the attention of scouts in a serious way. Initially, they were interested in him as a statistical anomaly, but his walk rate turned out to be a persistent issue that turned their eyes elsewhere.

At 18, Charlie was a mountain of a man. Being grown up and graduating from Davy Crockett High School, he could now work full-time at the shop and took over with his father as a co-owner. He worked there, repairing and managing the business, until the prelude to the Reaper war when the first news of the Outsider was blasted through his family’s TV set. His family quickly became fearful and somewhat hysterical of the new threat. The whole family characterized the outsider as some kind of demon. Charlie quickly expressed interest in joining the alliance as a mechanic, with his father’s fervent, slightly jingoistic support. His mother, however, was terrified of losing her son and protested heavily. Eventually, with a lot of convincing and pleading from Charlie and his father, Mary Ann allowed her son to enlist in the Alliance military as a mechanic.

He was trained in accordance with Alliance standard engineer’s training and was stationed on Terra Nova to shore up defensive structures and do necessary repairs. He was working on a local gun battery when the reapers attacked, and all hell broke loose. As he was running to the armory where his battlegroup set up makeshift defenses, a husk jumped at him from between a gap in the building and lunged at his face, getting a slash at his face, causing him to stumble back in pain. He quickly drew his pistol and began firing desperately, letting off round after round with one eye and a will to live. Eventually, he killed the husk with a headshot. He quickly retreated back to his group, letting off shots with his pistol as he covered his eye. He was carted off by medical staff and stabilized. He lay in the hospital recovering for much of the fighting, and when the attack was finally repelled, he insisted to the staff that he was okay. Much to the cautious medical staff's chagrin, he went back out into the field with an eyepatch and began repairing the damage to the best of his ability, even with his limited depth perception that made it extra difficult. He still owns the eye patch as another memento, thinking of it as a reminder of his mortality, and the “working man” ruggedness he and his town take pride in.

After the battle, he was honorably discharged from the Alliance and granted a replacement eye surgery. His encounter with the reapers only confirmed his preconceived notions of their demon-like appearance, taking pride in his close encounter with “the devil” in his hometown. He returned to Dripping Springs to the fanfare of his friends, and set up shop once more as the hometown mechanic with his father, relieved that his son came back to him alive and well.

However, Charlie still remembered his time out in the grand galaxy. He felt it, in hindsight, was such a fun adventure, despite the peril he endured. He felt that he put his small-town skills to good use out in the world and wanted more of it. Repairing things was his routine, and there was so much out there that needed repairing, and that beckoned adventure well beyond the everyday life of Dripping Springs. That taste of adventure lingered with him as he worked in the shop and registered in his local baseball league to pitch once more. He started to learn in his spare time about different species, different planets, the citadel; these things he only heard from in the vids he gained a deeply keen interest in. He wanted to see the world and help it out as he did in his town.

But he still needed to make sure the shop wouldn’t fail with his absence. To combat this, he offered a job to an old baseball friend of his, the third-baseman Jackie Thompson, whom he trusted well and was known for being more cerebral than his other teammates. Jackie accepted the job as a part-time manager to fill in for Charlie when he was absent.

In 2190, after a baseball game, he heard about the CRC formation on the news and felt that it could be a ticket to go see the world minus the peril. He wanted to get out there and see the things he had only heard about through others. After he had worked up enough income to buy new tools and vids about other cultures, he volunteered to join the CRC.

## Personality

Charlie exemplifies the Texan working man in his demeanor. Having a distinct Texas accent, he is a very polite and courteous individual to most people he meets, taking pride in his manners. He is a charming and assertive individual, bringing a large presence in any room he steps into. He is a very principled individual, adhering to his catholic faith rigidly. He can be seen as, at best, stubborn for his steadfast principles, and, at worst,  alienating to some who don’t align with his moral compass. He is not afraid of confrontation, however, and will do so if his honor is on the line.

He is also somewhat oblivious, in a child-like sense, to some alien species’ customs due to his lack of interstellar travel and involvement in multiracial institutions, but nevertheless is generally friendly with aliens despite this cultural ignorance. He expresses interest in learning about other species, even if it means making a fool of himself sometimes. He exhibits an optimistic and comforting outlook, never balking at helping those in need and being a shoulder to lean on.

### Hobbies and Interests

* **Johnny boy sure can play:** Charlie loves to play the old six-string guitar he got from his uncle. He loves to play for his family and friends around a nice campfire on a cool Texas night. Predictably, he plays mostly country and bluegrass. He has developed quite excellent skill in his craft.
* **Hey, batta, batta, batta:** Playing in his local independent league as a pitcher, he has an affinity for the sport baseball. He loves cheering on his home team, the Austin Rangers in the International Baseball League, whenever he can over a nice cold beer.
* **Culture shock:** Being very naive to alien cultures, Charlie developed an enjoyment of learning about different cultures and their philosophies shortly before joining the CRC. He is particularly interested in Quarian culture, given their reputation for mechanical knowledge that surpasses a vast majority of other races, and Turian culture, seeing their disciplined society as analogous to the rugged “workin’ man” lifestyle he grew up in.

## Physical Description

Charlie is a large and rugged man, standing at 6’5’’ and weighing a monumental 270 pounds. He is a muscular man with a typical amount of body fat on him for a human. He has a striking slash scar down his right eye, with his eyeball being prosthetic with a slight orange glow around the iris. He can regularly be seen with an arm sleeve around his right arm, mixed in with the occasional baseball cap of various teams.

His usual casual attire mostly consists of plaid button-down shirts or flannels, with the sleeves rolled up paired with work pants or jeans. Given his active lifestyle, athletic wear is also a favorite of his. However, his fieldwork gear is mostly unremarkable and typical of an engineer, having a black coloration. He usually has deep calluses on his hands from his work, almost never wearing gloves if he doesn’t absolutely need to.

He stands up tall with his shoulder blades back. He exhibits great self-assurance, but a gentle and approachable quality to him, much like the archetypal ‘gentle giant’. He uses physical contact quite frequently with people he is familiar and friendly with, patting them on the shoulder or back and giving ‘bro-hugs’ to particularly close friends. Many of the typical fixtures of “southern manners” are present in Charlie’s demeanor. Many people in his hometown describe him as someone who looks easy to confide in and approach, standing tall and understanding physio-social boundaries well.

### Armament

* M-5 Phalanx
* M-7 Lancer

### Abilities

* Tactical Cloak
* Neural Cloak
* Overload
* Incinerate