Jonas Spitzer

SrAM **Randall Philip Jonas Spitzer** is a lizardperson living in Skal, Obristan, Eridanis II. He was a Senior Airman's Mechanic with the Eridanis Defence Corps' Orbital Defence Force, before the Eridanis system was captured by the Syndicate. His current whereabouts are unknown.

His primary language is Croatian, the official language of the Eridanis system.

## Physical description

Jonas is a lizardperson standing at 1.91m (6'03") tall and weighing 80 kilograms. His scales are a light, fading green (#66BB55) and his eyes are light blue. His horns are somewhat short, albeit longer than Andreas'. Like Andreas, his tail has dark tiger-like stripes, and his stomach and the lower part of his snout are lighter than the rest of his body. His spines are short, running from the back of his neck down to the end of his tail, and feature no webbing between them.

### EDCODF Attire

Jonas' jumpsuit is blue, with his rank insignia - a white, encircled wrench with three "wings" - on either shoulder. On the right side of his chest is his nametag, which reads "*R.J. SPITZER - 529.ESKRADILE*" in white text. Jonas generally keeps a toolbelt on his waist.

## Biography

### Early life

Jonas was born on 16 February 2528 to Silas Spitzer and Jasuda-Spitzer. Not much about his early life is written. Andreas was born when Jonas was 6, and Jonas quickly became protective of his younger brother, often taking the brunt of the verbal abuse from his father. In late October 2546 at age 18, Jonas was kicked out of his home at gunpoint, where he withdrew what little savings he had, and hopped a passenger liner bound for the Duga systems under the name **Kicks-the-Tyres**.

### Homelessness and Arrests

Jonas landed a couple of weeks later in mid-November, and used his savings for food and water to survive. On 30 November 2546, he was arrested for misdemeanour trespass and sentenced to 2 weeks in jail.

A few weeks later, on the night of 28 December, Jonas was arrested again for stealing a loaf of bread, triggering an automated theft alarm at a local food mart. When officers arrived, the owner was talking to Jonas; said owner requested the charges be dropped, and Jonas was given temporary employment at the store, to work sweeping the floors in exchange for food and shelter.

### Radmeer assassinations

A week or so after the food mart theft, Jonas was approached by a branch member of the Syndicate. Said member offered Jonas a contract to assassinate two lawyers involved in a high-profile case. Jonas accepted the contract and continued working at the food mart until late-March 2547, where he left on a passenger shuttle to the nearby Radmeer system, upon where he was issued an L115A3 rifle and a photograph identifying both lawyers.

On 1 April, he set up across the street from a hotel where the lawyers were supposedly staying at, and just before 14:00, shot and killed both men. The first shot hit one lawyer in the heart, the second shot was affected by a sudden gust of tailwind and hit the second lawyer in the eye, overpenetrating and hitting the town mayor who was talking to them in the jugular.

After the shots, Jonas ditched the rifle but failed to clean the spent brass. His fingerprints were found on a door where the spent brass was located, leading to an arrest warrant to be issued. He collected the payment on the contact - 50000 Space Credits - and hopped a freighter bound for 'anywhere that wasn't here', arriving in Eridanis II a few weeks later.

On arrival, he dropped the pseudonym, going under the name 'PJ Spitzer'.

### Eridanis Defence Corps

After he got settled into a flat in Skal, Obristan, Eridanis II, Jonas deposited his earnings from the contract into a bank. Although the amount initially raised suspicion with the banking staff, they eventually bought the excuse that it was Jonas' life savings, and Jonas lived off of it for a while.

In September, becoming increasingly bored with life in an apartment, Jonas went out and joined the Eridanis Defence Corps, being hired on as a flight mechanic. He apprenticed under then-Staff Sergeant Harold Temple, quickly learning about the then-state-of-the-art Kuguar-class interceptor-fighter that was being developed in the wake of a civil war.

Jonas' apprenticeship ended early, becoming an *Airman's Mechanic Basic* in April 2548 due to a civil war. The Corps mobilised to shut down the war, however the battles still lasted a couple of years. During this time, Jonas quickly learned how to patch the ships up in order to keep them operational after sustaining a hit or two. These repairs, although intended to be temporary, tended to be used for several months before proper repairs could be completed.

The civil war ended with the EDC mostly restoring order in 2551. Due to Jonas' short apprenticeship, he only then was upgraded in rank to *Airman's Mechanic*. Although order was mostly restored, Jonas spent a lot of time maintaining and repairing Kuguars stricken by revolutionaries.

Jonas achieved the rank of *Airman's Mechanic First Class* in late 2553.

### Reunion with Andreas

On New Years' Eve, 2556, Andreas finally managed to track down Jonas and arrange a reunion, meeting that night for the first time in about 11 years. After the reunion, Andreas, Jonas, and Haylee Batten were on a Nanotrasen shuttle enroute to the NSV Astraeus when the shuttle was hijacked and Andreas was severely injured, to the point of being put into a coma for a few days. Jonas filled in for Andreas and built up rapport with the crew.

After about a week, Andreas returned to work and Jonas returned to the Eridanis Defence Corps. A month passed before Andreas was kidnapped, tortured for information, and placed under office arrest for his safety. Jonas once again filled in, however due to 2dLt. Dunn compiling a dossier on Jonas and forwarding it to the crew, Jonas began to become paranoid over his arrest warrant.

### NCV Basilisk incident

On 21 February, Jonas was given access to his dossier. After reading it, he went to the Syndicate in order to try to make the arrest warrant disappear. The Syndicate agent that spoke with him returned his request the next day, with a simple instruction: Detonate the onboard nuclear self destruct device that was aboard the ship he was filling in for Andreas for.

He began making plans to do it as nonlethally as possible, by first arming the emergency pods, then setting the nuclear self-destruct device to the maximum allowed time (10 minutes) - this would allow the pods to fire off, letting everyone escape while the empty ship was destroyed. He also made a plan in the event he'd been killed - it could pass as an unfortunate accident.

On 23 February, he set out to execute that plan. He breached into the engine nacelle and made his way into maintenance quickly, but was spotted. He accidentally cornered himself in the EVA bay, and his weapon malfunctioned. He was brought down and interrogated, then served as a prisoner of war, working off his debt to the crew of the NCV Basilisk as janitorial staff. In exchange, Dunn promised not to reveal what had happened to Andreas, and delete the arrest warrant himself. Jonas served a short sentence and was cleared of his debt, opting to return to Eridanis II rather than stay aboard and risk starting more trouble.

### "Death"

On 24 April, the Syndicate took over a neighbouring system to Eridanis, and the EDCODF was raised to high alert. The Syndicate began to invade Eridanis the next day, and the battle in space raged on overnight. On 26 April, realising their Kuguars were no match and the new Kurjak-class interceptors being little more than a barely-tested prototype which still needed work, General Habeus of the Eridanis Defence Corps broadcast the order to enact plans Baker-37 (an order to abandon all Eridanis military areas) and Fox-21 (an order to *destroy* all Eridanis military assets).

As Jonas received the order, he stole a Kurjak-class interceptor and began to fly it to the Syndicate capital. He diverted to Duga during a fuelling stop, after hearing a Syndicate Ravager broadcast over space traffic control, requesting permission to pursue the NCV Basilisk.

Jonas pursued and picked a fight with the Ravager, drawing some heat from the Basilisk and taking a couple of shots. Under the combined fire of the Basilisk and the Kurjak, the Ravager exploded and a piece of debris hit the Kurjak, sending the engine into runaway. Jonas pressed the eject button and the pilot's chair leaned back into an emergency cryopod, freezing Jonas.

## Trivia

* Jonas was named after a friend of the Creator.
* The alias *Kicks-the-Tyres* is a play on the phrase *"kick the tires and light the fires"*, in reference to his job as a flight mechanic.
* His <acronym title="NTNet Relay Chat">NTNRC</acronym> handle, *"Iceman"*, is a nod to *Top Gun* as well as a cryogenic stasis joke.