Ernest Malkovich

With his best years behind him, Ernest dreaded the twilight of his career. In order to maintain his relevance he studied as much information regarding technological and political shifts and breakthroughs as he had time for. He memorized all the old Six-Month War training materials. He could see where the wind was blowing. As Earth's political scope shifted to space AAs were the future of the military. Knowing this, he decided he would rather go out guns blazing than retire to some desk job and submitted his name for pilot evaluations.

Appearance
Ernest stands at a respectable 6', with greying hair trimmed into a sharp crew-cut. His soft slate-blue seem to hide something in their depths, though whether it's a beast or simply a shadow is up to speculation. He's stayed fit throughout his career, his physique practical rather than eye-catching. He has some slight scarring to the left of his chin, a J-shaped scar on the left side of his neck and a long pair of healed-over burn marks on the back of his right hand that taper off past his wrist.

Personality & Interests
At this point in his life Ernest is the human equivalent of a worn leather couch. Rough and firm in his youth, the years have taken some of the bite out the bear. Nowadays he's quicker with a quip than a fist, but not by much. He's easygoing when it's acceptable, but an old horse still kicks when it has to. In a crackdown situation he's strictly business and squad survival. Soldier Ernest has no heart for decisions that could jeopardize the mission and has learned the hard way what going against the directive can cost.

Interests
Drinking, billiards, cards, darts. Ernest's been an avid bar-hopper his entire career and has no qualms hustling someone who talks big or is too drunk for their own good. He's also a bit of a magician, knowing how to perform a variety of sleight-of-hand tricks for fun and profit. He knows his way around an acoustic guitar and the harmonica and even the piano somewhat and has a wide taste in music. When he's not socializing Ernest likes to unwind with a good book, usually something high-fantasy with magic and mystery. He also enjoys playing games online, sometimes a few rounds of Chess and sometimes losing himself in a fantasy RPG when he has the time for it.

Skills & Abilities
As a career soldier Ernest is tough, strong and highly skilled with his fists, a combat knife or a firearm. He's proven to be a quick study in the field of piloting, taking to AA sorties smoothly in sims and has had decent success in actual battles. He's had plenty of experience in the field as a veteran of the Six-Month War and uses his experience to his and his squad's advantage. He knows how to take apart, clean and reassemble most pistols and rifles in the ESU armory, as well as how to tweak them for optimal performance. He can also speak fluent Spanish and Italian when needed.

A Delinquent Child
The middle child of three, Ernest (or "Ernie" as he was more commonly called back then) grew up in the city of Arlington, Texas, the son of a florist and a clubhouse piano player. His older sister Tilly (Matilda Harriet Malkovich) and his younger brother Reggie (Reginald Bryan Malkovich) were often tattling to Ma and Pa about him getting into fights with the neighborhood kids. Despite his delicate profession, Ernest's father was very physical when it came to discipline. Ernest was often up to delinquent hijinks, usually involving fisticuffs or fireworks. He was no better in school, usually in detention for some threat or insult overheard by a concerned teacher or for possessing potentially dangerous contraband.

At age sixteen he stole two bottles of whiskey from his father's liquor cabinet and skipped town with his friends, driving over the border into Mexico without a word to his family. Two weeks later he turned up in a jail cell in El Paso, sick as a dog and covered in scratches and bruises. His parents bailed him out and told him he had two options if he still wanted to live under their roof:  quit being a stubborn little cuss and get straight A's for the next two years or join the Army after graduation. When his next report card only turned out average marks, it was decided. After barely making it through basic training (thanks to his attitude problem), Ernest officially became a soldier in the summer of 0356.

The A-Team
Ernest was skilled in the field but did not play well with others, usually leading to him volunteering for more dangerous assignments that called for smaller, more specialized groups. He took to CQC, firearms usage and maintenance drills, and special operational training with zeal, eager to prove himself better than his squadmates. It was at this time he was assigned under Lt. Col Louis Vellers, a man known for his patience and whose regiment lost nary a man despite the danger of their deployments. Col. Vellers gave Ernest every mission he volunteered for, and every mission he came back. His squadmates were ornery eager bastards just like he was, each hungry for the chance to prove that there were no others who could stand in their way. Ernest fit right in, especially with a group who worked directly with the Colonel himself:  Robbie, an African-American soldier, a Moroccan woman named Nona, Marla, a spacer from Orion and Connie, from Tennessee.

As time went on, the four of them became Col. Vellers' go-to squad for anything that needed to be handled quick and loud. When the Six-Month War broke out, they saw a lot of action. A lot of bloody, redacted-style action. Reality took a harsh toll on the group, and after the death of their Colonel during one particularly grisly operation they began to lose cohesiveness. Soon after, they began to lose each other. In the years following the war Ernest and Marla were the only survivors of their original group. Marla moved up in the ranks and took more of a command position while Ernest sank, drinking as heavily as he could get away with and throwing himself recklessly into the fray. After a stint in a colony hospital suffering from a shot in the gut, he was sent back to Earth with a new assignment as a basic training instructor.

Training a New Generation
He was hard on his students, harder than he'd ever been. He'd seen the raw brutality of war and had lost good friends. He gained a reputation of being a heartless, backbreaking bastard. He vented his frustrations on his students, pushing them far further than other squads. He taught them what he'd been taught and expected the same results in a fraction of the time it had taken him to learn. His men and women hated his guts, but they came out tough and ready for anything. Ernest began to see why he'd been chosen as an instructor, and when he received a letter from one of his students it wasn't full of hate and insults but gratitude and respect. He realized that these kids needed the same thing he did when he was their age and resolved to prepare them as best he could so they wouldn't have to suffer the same way he had to. When he was rotated out of his training position years later he was greeted with faces he'd trained in the past, soldiers who had used what he taught them to survive and help others. Ernest turned down the desk job his superiors offered, saying that there were still soldiers who needed him. A week later he enrolled in the AA-piloting program, determined to give all he could for the men and women he'd be serving alongside and to, for once, not be the stubborn little cuss he'd been for so long.

Russian Front
((Summary of Chapters 1 - ???))