Interlude 4: Courage
The Alliance Military database is proud to present: Profiles in Courage - brought to you by ExoGeni Cooperation:
Tonight's Profile is Service Chief Lucas Bonkowski.
Chief Bonkowski was born on Earth in the super-city of New York and grew up on hard times. His mother died when he was only twelve years of age from complications in childbirth and his father was killed by the explosion of a shuttle crash when he was fourteen.
Taken in by his uncle, Alexander Bonkowski, Lucas came to know of his family's military heritage. The earliest Bonkowski to serve in the military dates back to Earth's second World War in which a Sergeant Alric Bonkowski fought for the American Army in the Pacific (Search keywords: Human History, World War II, Pacific). His uncle also made him aware that his grandmother, Jenna Bonkowski, was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Alliance Navy. Inspired by the stories of his ancestors, Chief Bonkowski joined the Alliance Military as a non-commissioned member at the age of seventeen and became a career man for the Alliance Marines and a reliable brother-in-arms and leader for his comrades.
He was twenty-two when he met his wife, Allicia Diaz, a civilian weapons specialist who currently works for Armax Industries. They had one child, Dania Diaz-Bonkowski and adopted two dogs (Search keywords: Earth creatures, canine, dog), Hexus and Sabriel before his selection as part of the crew of the SSV Normandy.
Prior to that selection in his military career, Chief Bonkowski participated in many missions with 99th Marine Division, including the famous Defence of Elysium, where his platoon's quick reaction force came to the aid of the colony during a batarian raid on the planet.
Lucas wanted to "run a canine rescue centre when he retired" and "watch his daughter fulfil her dream of becoming a Terraformer" while "smothering his wife all the love she deserved" as quoted by his uncle. Instead, he gave his life saving the colonists of Eden Prime.
To read more Profiles in Courage, or to join the Alliance Military, please visit the Alliance Military on the extranet, keyword: "Courage".
A.N.
I really like this one. Well, I really like all these little snippets, but this one hit home since I feel like it really humanizes Bono instead of giving him a dreaded 'star trek red-shirt' feeling (I'll do the same thing with Lex, but later and not in a snippet) since I don't really mention how he died in the next chapter.
Here is where I announce that I'm making little snippets like this between certain chapters at irregular intervals as suggested to me by a good friend and fellow writing enthusiast. Some of it involves the motivations of organizations outside the overall 'Shepard' perspective I'm following. They'll include stories that involve Cerberus agents and how powerful the splinter group become throughout the hunt for Saren, the Geth (both the Heretics and the Legion – I'm using Legion as a broad term because I think it fits), Citadel Council conversations, etc. Other snippets might include newsreels and service announcements like this one that I feel are appropriate or fill in little knowledge gaps so I don't have to resort to a character saying "How does that work?" or "I've never heard of that".
I have promised to make a "Mass Effect Moments" story on the side with stuff that doesn't fit into these little snippets or is too long. Stuff like Loraina's version of her time with Serrica, Kaiden's reaction to the news of how drunk she got the day before their mission to Eden Prime started and his reaction to Serrica's command style in general, Presley's adventures in essentially becoming XO before he actually becomes XO, Chief Bonkowski's last moments, etc. Only time will tell if I actually finish them, but there is a separate document for them right now.