Very brief/short scenes or snippets that wouldn't stand on their own, but do help characterize/ give background to Jacob Maxson and Michael Greenwood , I may do this for other characters.

So I played the New California mod, and I loved it. So this courier will have an origin based off of that, so at the very least the Courier's last name will be Star, but I'm still debating on if the Courier is male or female.

Character Snippets and Scraps (Pre-War)

Jacob Scene 1

"Stay away from my sister." Jacob says.

The man scoffs "Or what? You'll call the cops?"

"Nope, the cops won't hauling you to jail" Jacob lifts the shovel in his hands, which looked like it had been inadvertently sharpened from extended use.

"They'll be hauling me to jail."

For a moment the man looks afraid, before scoffing and storming off.

Scene 2

AN: he refers to the person as a bastard, I didn't give the man a name since he's essentially a one-off

He warned the bastard, but would he listen? Nope, not even for a moment. Nora had barely escaped when the man tried to assault her. Jacob didn't know who he was, but he didn't really care. He had already called Roger and he said he was coming home the moment he could go on leave.

Jacob approached the bar where that bastard was, No one touched his family and walked away, neither he or Roger would stand for it.

"I warned you to stay away from my sister." His tone was flat almost dispassionate.

The bastard sneered. "Piss off farmboy,"

"You can't touch me, My father owns this town." The man seemed much braver now that he had people with him.

Jacob sighs. He notices that people were leaving the bar, they already knew it was going to get violent. After most of the patrons had left, he walked towards the door and locked it.

It was at this moment when Jacob was walking back towards him, that the bastard realized that he was trapped in a bar with a kid who threatened to kill him just a few days ago.

"Daddy's money and influence won't save you from me." Jacob answered calmly, it was the last thing he said as he proceeded to use the shovel he brought with him to attack the bastard.

Before the man could react, he was already on the ground. The men with him shocked at the sudden attack collected their wits and charged at Jacob. But it was a little too late, Jacob was waiting for them.

Turns out that working on a farm allowed you to build a fair bit of strength. As the bastard's friends found out hard way. Surprisingly it didn't take that much to lay them out. and unlike them Jacob had a weapon.

The fight wasn't long and drawn out, they were caught off guard. That made it much easier to take them down.

Jacob noticed that the bastard was trying to crawl away. He walks up to him and turns him onto his back, at this point the poor bastard had started pissing himself.

"Like I said before, They won't be hauling you to jail." He brought the shovel above his head

"They'll be sending me to jail." He brought the shovel down.

Scene 3

"So you're telling me that one of the local farm boys beat up the mayor's son and castrated him?"

"Yes sir."

"Any idea why?"

"Apparently before the violence started, farmboy said and I quote: I warned you to stay away from my sister."

So the mayor's son attempted to assault the perp's sister. And it turned out that a member of the woman's family had no qualms about striking back.

When they got to the scene they found the mayor's son in a bloody heap.

Two army boys had come to their favorite bar for a night of drinking. Only to find that it was closed. When they heard the screaming, they broke down the door, and found the perp beating the victim bloody.

They subdued him, but he made good fight of it. If the shiner one of the soldiers had was any indication.

When they questioned him, they asked if he knew who he had attacked and he responded "Am I supposed to care?" kid looked completely unrepentant about the whole matter.

"After he had been subdued, The victim then threatened to hurt the perps family…" what he wasn't saying was the soldier's stated he made threat to hurt the perp's family more particularly suggesting that he would inflict some sort depravity on them.

"… at which point the perp got free and picked up his fallen weapon and used it to castrate the victim."

The Sheriff did not believe for a second that the perp got free on his own. He knew those soldiers, they were good at what they did. It was more likely that they let him go and then subdued him again once he had castrated the victim.

It only got more complicated when the Mayor stormed in and started threatening the kid.

Jacob Scene 4

A man in uniform had walked in, he held sheaf of papers.

"Jacob Maxson, adopted son of Shaun and Elizabeth Maxson. Foster sibling to one Nora and Roger Maxson." He flipped over a few papers.

"Nora Maxson had just finished her law degree and was drafted into the reserves, and Roger Maxson is a Captain in the USAF."

Outwardly Jacob showed no response, but inwardly he was worried. The man who entered the interrogation room wore an army uniform like his brother, except this one had more decorations on it and a different rank insignia.

"Elizabeth Maxson was diagnosed with cancer two months ago." Jacob twitched ever so slightly.

"Higgs and Douglas told me of how good you are in a fight." The soldier pulled out a cigar and lit it.

The two soldiers stormed into the bar to find some poor sap being beaten to death. They subdued him but when they heard the idiot victim make some threats on the perpetrator's family…

As far as everyone knew Jacob had managed to slip from grasp and castrate the idiot in the span of a minute.

Ha, as if that was possible. Higgs and Douglas were good at what they did, a farm boy slipping out of their grasp was unlikely. Both of them were locals apparently, they knew the kid and his family, both of them admitted as much. Despite their father's questionable reputation, Elizabeth Maxson and her children were well regarded in countryside, and when the victim threatened her and her daughter…

Well let's just say the locals tend to stick with their own especially neighbors they regard highly, and may or may not have let him go to do as wanted.

The mayor had been screaming for the kid's blood right until it got exposed that he had been covering up his son's misdemeanors. Clammed up pretty good, especially since several the idiot's victims came from influential families. Hearing of the state of their rapist, several victims started pressing charges. Locals were now out for blood, the Mayor's blood. Now he's trying cover his ass.

Which leaves this kid stuck bureaucratic limbo. On one hand, he was defending his family. On the other hand, he did commit assault. Considering he laid several people flat and even held his own against trained soldiers.

Recruiting someone who was already capable of that is very appealing, pulling a few strings to get him sent to the army rather than jail would be easy. Loath they may be to admit it, The war is bleeding America dry. Even if they sent him to jail they may just draft him anyways.

Jacob didn't answer

"You have a choice kid, you can go to jail or you can join the army like your brother."

"Because if you and your brother are in the military and your sister is being sent to the reserves, your mother will be left all alone." The Soldier took a drag from his cigar.

He was still silent, and the soldier sighed.

"Look kid, the army needs soldiers. Your brother and your sister are in the Army now. You take this option, and I guarantee that your mother will be taken care of in your absence. But if you go to jail then she'll have to live on her own, both of your siblings' postings are far away, so what'll it be?"

Jacob answered.

Jason Frost/Michael Greenwood Scene 1

It never really bothered him that much, Killing that is.

For Jason Frost it was as easy as breathing.

"The threat is real, your country needs you" Those words echoed in his head. It was because those words that he joined the DIA.

It all started when he joined the army. Last member of an old family from southern gentry wanting to do his part for his country. Maybe that's why they recruited him.

For a time he actually believed it, but as he completed more operations it started to feel pointless.

How many people had he killed in the name of protecting his country? Many of them were traitors, opportunists who sold out their own country. But others? Not all of them were traitors Jason could tell the difference, some were at the wrong place at the wrong time, some were simply assets that did not realized they were being used.

Not that it stopped the higher ups from ordering all of them killed.

"Seek the truth, No matter how horrible it is."

His own father once said that, and once upon a time the DIA lived by those words, to defend their nation they had to seek the truth.

The truth was ugly.

It's been twenty years.

Twenty years of service.

Twenty years of defending his nation.

Twenty years of killing whatever threatened his homeland.

Now? he was tired, he was sick of it.

Scene 2

After he had long 'retired' and took up his real name, he had somehow ended up in politics. While there he found out a truth he so desperately wanted to ignore.

Nuclear war was imminent. Not necessarily soon, maybe not for a decade or two. But it was going to happen and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Maybe he was being paranoid, but there were signs that the government was compromised. From what he could tell the government was aware of Nuclear war becoming a very real possibility, but they were doing very little in terms of Counter measures.

Project Safehouse? There weren't enough 'Vaults' for every single American Citizen. Sad fact of reality was that it was unlikely that they could save them all.

He built up contacts, some were former coworkers, others were old friends from a long time ago.

Now he was hearing talk of another Project.

Some of his former coworkers had extended family working for it, seems like the ones in charge of the 'Project Phoenix' mean to try do something, most of their scientists were looking into technologies that could help in environmental restoration while others were looking at developing equipment to survive "Post-Nuclear war" scenarios.

Might be worth looking into.

Scene 3

While he was retired he kept in touch with others in a similar circumstances.

They had stayed out of the intrigue and plots like himself, but still kept their ears to the ground.

The Phoenix project wasn't big enough to be a solution for Nuclear war, but it was big enough that it could do something in the aftermath.

If there is a 'conspiracy' they've done little to influence the project. The heads of the project were smart, they quietly espoused the idea that the project would help protect America if the bombs went off.

Not necessarily true, but it still appealed enough to gain silent backing from several influential people. Greenwood believed that a few of them knew what was coming, a few gave their support but had the stipulation that their families would have places in the 'Vault' that the project had built. From what he had been told, it was shaping up to be much larger than any vault from Project Safehouse.

He couldn't help but feel sorry for them, America slowly became a shadow of what it once was and now?

Now they had to do their damnedest keep it afloat, saving their families must have been a small comfort for them.

Michael had to talk to a new contact, one Reid Underwood...

Scene 4

There were times where Michael hated being right, this was one of those times.

Turns out there really was a conspiracy, Underwood stumbled right into it.

A fucking Shadow Government, How high did it go up? How long had this been going for? Years? Decades? didn't matter now.

Michael tried to stop Reid but he wouldn't listen, too damned gung-ho. Man's heart was in the right place, but when dealing with something like this, patience and cautiousness were the watchwords of the day. A lesson some of his deceased colleagues found out the hard way decades ago.

Michael had to pull the plug on Quaere Verum, get as many as he could out before Underwood could get everyone killed.

Quaere Verum was the Motto and objective of the DIA a long time ago, long before he joined.

To protect the nation, Seek the truth.

No matter how horrible it was.

Only bright spots in all of this is that most of us got away free and clean, except for those directly under the command of Underwood. They were caught and killed, but there was no sign of Reid himself.

The only other good thing to come out of this was the gathered intel.

Michael couldn't help but be surprised by how easy it was to cover their tracks. It felt too easy but there were no signs that there was a ploy to get them to let their guards down.

Was it arrogance? Did they think Underwood commanded all of Quaere Verum? Did they think they got them all?

Didn't matter. Now they had names and faces for this conspiracy.

It will take some time, but the information will be acted upon.

I might do this for other characters in the future.