Joseph Lacroix

played by: Patrick Stewart

Joseph Philippe Lacroix was a sophomore at McGill university, studying English literature, when he first came to the notice of the Jihad. Just after his twentieth birthday in 1994, Lacroix stumbled over the Jihad's existence in a discussion with a member of the Church of Saint Dino the Avenger. When he responded to the group's existence more with intrigue than disbelief or paranoia, the CoStDtA acolyte maintained communications with him for a few months before successfully recruiting him in October of 1994 after a simple cover-up for his disappearance from Mundane society.

Lacroix's early months in the Jihad were fairly uneventful. His training period passed without much incident, and his position as a common soldier left him largely untouched by the disputes in the Jihad's rarified brass areas between December 1995 and January 996.
In the wake of those events, Lacroix proved himself a solid soldier in the skirmishes of the day, earning a promotion to sergeant and a squad command in July 1996.

Lacroix was still getting used to being addressed as "Sergeant" by fellow Jihaddi when the X'hirjq invasion occurred in August 1996. He handled his men admirably during the running battles of the operation's early days, but had the bad luck to be in the line at the Battle of TRES HQ in September. The initial attacks on the headquarters were repulsed, but casualties were so high that Lacroix found himself holding the brevet rank of captain early in the battle. He was himself incapacitated when his position took a direct hit during a X'hirjq fighter's attack run, with Lacroix being seriously wounded. Of the twelve men under his immediate command, and the ninety others under his brevet command, only eight survived.

The Jihad survived the hammer-blow of Operation Phoenix, but its myth of invincibility was decisively shattered, with wideranging effects throughout the hierarchy. Junior commanders took the brunt of this, wounded both in body and mind, and Lacroix was no exception. After being treated for his wounds, Lacroix - commissioned to ensign for some of his actions at Phoenix, not the least of which was being able to boast eight survivors from a front-line company at the HQ line - spent two months on light duty and reorg work, during which he gradually put himself back together. Recovery from his wounds made him miss Operation Pacifica. Despite Lacroix's recovery from his injuries, of both types, he remains plagued by occaisional flashbacks to the HQ battle, more often in quiet times than otherwise. As a result, he developed a fondness for background noise.

The post-Phoenix atmosphere created an air of mobility not seen before. "Loaned" to VRDET for a time in mid-1997, Lacroix worked as a brevet field operative, troubleshooting and consulting for a temporary term which soon became permanent, earning him a billet in VR Explorations. Lacroix spent most of the rest of 1997 and most of 1998 providing technical support for various functions and training new recruits, which kept him on base during the day's major operations. Lacroix's combat experience in this time was mostly the innumerable small skirmishes the Jihad fought every day, in which he performed admirably.

The disappearance of all B'harnate and Lyran forces in May of 1999 led to the Jihad's
demobilization, with Lacroix being one of thousands of Jihaddi suddenly dumped into civilian life. The man who left McGill almost five years earlier no longer existed, and Lacroix opted to remain in Colorado like many other Jihaddi. Intelligence quietly edited Lacroix and a number of other Jihaddi into American society, usually as discharged Gulf War veterans, and the new civilian went about completing his education, graduating from Adams State in 2002.

Returning to civilian life after some time in the oddest military careers available to
humanity was not easy, but Lacroix managed. After his graduation, he earned a teacher's
certification and began teaching high school English in Denver. By March of 2004, Lacroix
was living a fairly comfortable life, with his limp gone, the memories of Phoenix mostly
under control, and only a fleeting urge to kill some of his students. Little did he know..

GURPS character stats

Attributes: ST 12 IQ 14 DX 13 HT 12

Appearance:
Caucasian male, 30 years of age, 5'11" and 175lbs; gray eyes, short brown hair and a goatee. In civilian life, Lacroix tends to wear business-casual type clothing, always wears his wooden, hand-carved crucifix, and stays far away from the color green when he has a choice in the matter. In the summer, he is often seen wearing a sunburn.

Advantages:
Acute Vision +2 [4], Alertness [5], Ally Group (the Jihad) [30], Combat Reflexes [15], Fit [5], Military Rank +4 [20]

Disadvantages:
Code of Honor [-10], Duty (to the Jihad) [-35], Enemy (B'harne and Fiends) [-40], Flashbacks (2d seconds) [-5], Post-Combat Shakes [-5], Secret
(falsified veteran's records) [-5], Secret (Jihaddi) [-30], Sense of Duty [-10]

Skills:
 Area Knowledge (Blanca Mountain)-15, Area Knowledge (TRES HQ)-15, Area Knowledge (Quebec)-16, Armoury/TL8-14, Beam Weapons/TL8 (Xrifle)-17, Bicycling-13, Boating-12, Calligraphy-13, Camouflage-13, Cartography-13, Computer Operation/TL7-15, Cooking-13, Driving/TL7 (Automobile)-12, Driving/TL7 (Snowmobile)-11, Electronics/TL8-13, First Aid-14, Forgery-12, Gunner/TL7 (Machine Gun)-14, Guns/TL7 (Light Automatic)-14, Guns/TL7 (Pistol)-16, Hiking-12, History-14, History (Esoteric)-10, Holdout-14, Karate-12, Knife-14, Language (English)-15, Language (French)-16, Leadership-15, Literature-16, Mathematics-12, Mechanic/TL7-14, Orienteering-14, Physics/TL7-13, Politics-13, Psychology-13, Research-14, Savoir-Faire (Military)-16, Shortsword-12, Skating-11, Skiing-11, Sports (Hockey)-12, Stealth-12, Survival (Forest)-13, Tactics-14, Teaching-13, Theology (Catholic)-11, Writing-14

Quirks:
"Dammit, I was just getting settled.."
Canadian federalist
Gripes about education standards
Never got used to the parahumans
Political cynic ("Well, if we own Colorado..")
Uncomfortable leading groups
Keeps a radio or TV on in the background if at all possible

Total points: 155