Position: Heavy Equipment Operator

Birthplace: Triumph

Affiliation: Alliance

Age: 35

Background:

He grew up on triumph, second of twelve children - and his parents' first son. At age 16 he was ushered to leave the small community, being shunned by most of the village elders in the process. He still managed to write letters to his family, and send them back anything he had earned to keep them fed. Not many would hire him, so he did what he could and joined the Alliance Navy. Too poor and uneducated to be considered at first for Officer school he was put through enlisted basic training, which he shocked all of his teachers and was recommended for officer training school.

However, though he performed admirably, his background and his uneducated history made the alliance brass frown upon this. However his story had been grabbed a hold of by an eager press secretary - the Amish Marine, he was called. So the Alliance brass reluctantly allowed him to participate in officer candidate school, where he met and made a number of friends and associates, including Captain Harris.

However, unlike his future boss, he decided to stay enlisted - to the utter dismay of both the press and the higher brass. For this he was looked after for many more years, and passed up on many different occasions for promotions.

He fought for the Alliance though Triumph officially was neutral, leaning support to the independents. And he was one of many enlisted who knew that the fighting would be horrible thanks in part to the enemy being their own. The war was hard on everyone - but for a man who had to fight against his fellow class mates, friends, and in one case family - it was hard to take.

So after the war, he decided to hang up his hat and leave at the rank of Sergeant, where he had joined up with a few former independent fighters who managed to not hold as much a grudge as most, included was Michael Harris, for a brief while. A year later Joseph went back to the Alliance Navy, and was readily accepted back, and with a promotion to Staff Sergeant. One year later, Harris called in a quick favor.

As Joseph's latest posting was at a warehouse full of derelicts still under investigation, and because he still owed Harris a debt for saving his hide during a poker game where Joseph had told a man he thought he was cheating. Well, cheating or not this man was a tong leader, and cheating or not he had four of his buddies pull weapons on Joseph, and luckily for him, Harris took two down before they could get a bead on him. If it weren't for the captain he would've had a bullet in his head rather than be missing part of his ear. So he quickly obliged, re routed a shipment and had it get 'lost' - drop its cargo and by the time it returned, the ship's nav computer was scrambled and had not a trace of where it went.

Shortly thereafter he was transferred to the Dromedary, where he was given a promotion to Gunnery Sergeant and put in charge of ships weapons systems. This however proved to be a great opportunity for him, and he managed to increase productivity among the men of his ship's cannon crews by 120%. For years after their ship, the ANS (Alliance Navy Ship) Dromedary was put in charge of pirate and slaver apprehension missions around the rim, until that fateful day when they were ordered to go elsewhere by an unknown 'operative'. While en route, and almost arriving in system, the Dromedary arrived a little later than the other ships and witnessed the first major battle between reavers and the alliance military - first hand.

Being so far out, the Dromedary was easily set upon by four reaver ships, two, thanks to the gunny's deckhands - didn't make it to boarding them. However eventually they were latched onto and the Reavers managed to cut, slash, rape and kill their way through the alliance ranks. By the time the ANS Omaha had come to their rescue and managed to cut the two reaver ships off of them - Gunnery Sergeant Brochard, and a Petty officer were the highest ranking personnel left alive. Of the 250 men and women aboard the Dromedary, 13, including Brochard, managed to make it off alive.

The next week Brochard had received orders, as many of the other Alliance enlisted and officers had, to a new posting. Brochard's was to a guard platoon in charge of protecting a Mr. Whetherford. Mr. Whetherford was a parliament speaker who was in charge of telling people the government didn't make reavers and that reavers did not exist, and that if they did - 'they pose no threat to man kind'.

The next day, Brochard refused orders, and sent in his resignation letter. One week later he was hit by a wave from his friend Michael Harris who was looking for someone who might have experience with heavy weapons-like equipment, as he had a spot open. Brochard readily accepted, filled up two seabags with all the personal affects (and some he stole) from the military and left to rejoin Harris aboard the Fading Sun.

Personality Profile:

A former Marine Gunnery sergeant for the Alliance Navy, He is steady calm in the midst of most any sort of trouble with only one situation ever giving him nightmares, and that was witnessing the brutality of the reavers during the battle over Mr. Universe's hideout. He sticks to his credo, honor courage and commitment, an old Marine corps adage, and will always tell you what he thinks of you, and has a very hard time telling a lie (though he has no incentive to tell one). He is loyal to a fault, but you cross him and you better hope he doesn't have his peacekeeper with him.

Still, Gunny is one of those Marines who still has a few connections in the military, and most of the men and women he has served with, who made it big, still owe him a little extra for saving their hide, or for helping them in another way. Through the 'rough times' between his stint in the military during the war and his stint in the military after the war, he managed to pick up a bad habit of leaving a trade mark on any man he would kill during a fair fight, by placing a "get well card" firmly in either the man's hand, or his breast pocket.

Skills:

Joseph, "Gunny" to almost all, loves to run and being a country boy is decently athletic though he swears up and down the military 'softened him up' too much. He's a sneaky little guy, and has a natural talent at gumming up the works of electronic and mechanical devices. He is decent with a pistol, but can hit the cap off a man's head with an assault rifle at 300 Yards, 200 yards if you want the man still alive. He's disciplined, and tends to intimidate those who don't know him (and those who crossed him).

He's a natural born leader, with a high sense of morale, and during his military stint, he managed to prove himself very useful as a spotter for artillery and orbital bombardment, but proved even more useful as a director and operator of ship to ship and ship to ground weapons (Though he prefers to shoot his enemy himself). He also has managed to, in his short time aboard the Fading sun, managed to catch up - read up, and pratice himself in what he calls 'the art of severing a ship from bow to aft in three simple steps'.

In his career as a marine he did manage to pick up a few useful things in hand to hand combat, known as AMMAP (Alliance Military Martial Arts Program), though he definitly could use more than one or two pointers. Lastly, though the gunny can be a bit of a hardass at times - he always managed to bring his men together one way or another. He had always been the class clown, when time warranted it, and could perform a few musical instruments pretty decently, including a guitar and piano. However, one of his favorite instruments of all time - and one that he has had with him since he was a little boy, his a harmonica. Gunny has managed to keep it in working condition through all sorts of shoot outs, space craft crashes and near death experiences. As he would say, 'that harmonica is as every bit part of me as my left nostril or right big toe... oh wait.. lost that in the war".