Michael Hartwick

Michael Hartwick is a private in the Tartarian Militia. He acts as a machine-gunner and vehicle gunner in Raider Section and is one of the protagonists of Vickers's War.

## History

Michael was born to a large military family in the United States. Both his brother and father served in the US Military, which caused him to take an interest in anything military, and aspiring to join the army one day. Michael spends his time learning about the most interesting things he can find, which gave him a wild imagination. He often comes up with crazy ideas and theories which he rarely is able to prove or enact. He also collects military items, such as the ballistic helmet he wears. As a kid, Michael travelled a lot across the country, staying with family members and doing interesting things, such as being a cook, which he excels at. Unbeknownst to Michael, his family was involved in crime in order to keep afloat as the economy spiraled downwards. This would cause Michael to lose his brother and father to the police. The rest of his family relocated afterwards to a ranch in the midwest. Michael was looking through his family's military belongings when he found himself in the Afterlife. Michael finally fulfilled his dream of joining the military, although accidentally joining the Infantry, which regularly sees combat and is generally one of the toughest classes to be in.

## Personality

Despite the hardships in the Infantry, Michael remains optimistic and cheerful, being eager to learn from others and offer new ideas to them, although most are rejected. He is deeply hurt when people are mad at him, although he almost always forgives them in his heart. Michael remains interested in military related things and will jump to experience anything related to it. His bright, helpful attitude in the face of hardship caught the eye of Adrian, who tries to keep Michael from the worst aspects of the Infantry. While not being particularly talented at anything, Michael's willingness to learn allows him to fit a variety of roles, filling in as a medic, cook, mechanic, gunner, tank crew, driver, and turret crewman. Michael enjoys writing about his experiences, as he grew up reading military stories and is excited to be writing his own. His written works account for the vast majority of the text content of Vickers's War. Michael would end up in the Recoverat, following Adrian.

## Appearance

Michael is male and 5'11", he has fair skin and short golden hair with brown eyes. He is always seen smiling and joyful, always ready to share a new idea with you. Michael wears a Tartarian tan and black Infantry uniform, and dons a reinforced flak jacket and US Army helmet with ballistic goggles for protection. For additional protection, Michael wears shoulder pauldrons, thigh armour, and a groin plate. He tries to keep his uniform from getting dirty whenever possible. Michael dislikes wearing cam paint.

## Ideas

Some Ideas Michael has considered over the years:

aircraft should be able to fight on land as improvised mechs

Tanks should have a lot of rockets on them which fire all at once so that the tank can leave early

Tanks should be nuclear-powered like submarines to be able to go wherever they want without supply lines

buying cheap cameras and mounting them on turrets so the gunner doesn't have to get in the turret seat

buying ballistic plates and connecting them into a big bulletproof shield for the vehicle turret

playing Imperial music so the Imperial army gets confused and feels guilty for shooting at us

controlling the turret gun with a videogame controller instead of by hand

holding a lighter in front of the machine gun barrel so the bullets catch on fire

cooking food with jet fuel

cooking food with a hot engine

cooking food with flamethrowers (tested)

The infantry gets one week a year where they all go to the capital to relax and present their grievances

Unionizing the army

Adrian is mad all the time because he never gets to go anywhere

Everyone should get a machine gun

Michael may be gay since he's never been with a woman. But he's never been with a man either so maybe he's nothing

Helmets should have VR goggles on them to have HUDs

wearable rocket launchers (tested)

turning flamethrowers into mortars (tested)

pinup art for the Militia's vehicles in the name of morale

Kaitlyn is secretly trying to build a time machine

building a time machine to make sure the Afterlife never gets abandoned so people stop fighting over it

starting a wiki

## In combat

Michael is the light machine gunner of Raider Section, and is in Delta Group with Adrian. Michael uses a light machine gun to suppress enemies and deliver heavy but mobile firepower in combat. Michael serves in this role during the events of Vickers's War. He is also a vehicle gunner, manning autocannons, TOW launchers, and mounted machine guns on armoured vehicles. On occasion, he serves as a turret gunner for stationary gun turrets, and also operates ATGM launchers. Michael carries the section's supply of rocket launchers.