Jack Boot

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## Appearance

Jack is medium height, fit, toned, and clean-cut (except when on leave, when he is apt to sport a goatee). When not in standard United Space Forces uniform attire, he wears his own tactical garb. He keeps his hair cropped very short, with number one clippers.

## Personality

Jack isn't the brightest light on the porch, but he is serious-minded, focused, and above all, loyal. Loyal to the USF, loyal to his fellow rats, and loyal to the Terran species. He is accepting of all Terrans, regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, whatever.

On the other hand, Jack is deeply xenophobic. He hates and distrusts any intelligent non-Terran species, referring to them by a variety of slurs, but most often "goop." He believes that Terrans are the superior species, and resents the participation of alien species in the USF.

## Character Background

Jack Boot is the son of Jonas and Martha Boot (nee Stubing). Jonas was a wealthy inner world businessman until he was forced to declare bankruptcy when his business went under following legislation that strove to promote inter-species equality of opportunity. Martha divorced Jonas, but lost custody of 8-year-old Jack in court.

Raised by a bitter and mostly-absent father, Jack was easy prey for militant, xenophobic extremists who blamed non-terran species for their socio-economic woes. He became obsessed with the idolization of all things military, to the detriment of his grades. Ironically, this prevented him from acceptance into the Orion Military Institute (OMI), so he satisfied his militaristic power-tripping ambitions by becoming a security guard for a parts manufacturer called HoTech at one of their orbiting distribution facilities.

HoTech’s corporate culture was hyper-focused on cost reduction and made excessively high demands of its people. Even though Jack’s role was strictly security, he found himself being called upon to work long hours assisting in other operations beyond his job description, and along the way he discovered he had a talent for operating heavy machinery. He was a hard worker and serious-minded, so when he applied to the USF Mobile Schneider Flight Academy with recommendations from HoTech management, he was accepted on a probationary basis.

Over the years, several incidents have occurred that pushed Jack's xenophobia to the extreme. While aboard the USFS Armstrong, Captain Thorne made questionable decisions based on his infatuation with a woman whom Jack mistakenly believed to be a Vincian, resulting in the ship getting surrounded by enemies in the Antilles Cluster. Several of Jack's friends lost their lives in that encounter. But most notably, when Jack served aboard the USFS Xerxes under Admiral McTavish, he caught fellow cadet and close friend Liz Fulton in the showers covered by slime. He reframes that encounter as a horrific attack on the cadet, but deep down in his own psyche, in places he dares not look, he has repressed the fact that what he encountered was a consensual sexual tryst between Cadet Fulton - whom Jack had feelings for - and an alien blob.

## Character Aspects and Powers

Character aspects are statements about something unique about a character.