Staff Sergeant (HD/QHD)

I'm not familiar, but having just looked her up, I absolutely love her. ^___^

I love this character design. She kind of reminds me of the character Katie Kling from the comic series Raven the Pirate Princess. Buff and strong, but also a big sweetheart.

Nathan Weber

She keeps her equipment in good working order!

Thanks for that, that's a lot of information to keep in mind! At least, hundreds of years in the future in a space fleet, I don't have to get it all perfectly accurate, but I'd like encounters with the military to feel at least a little bit authentic. Oh yeah, Vasquez is the one from the movie 'Aliens', this is SSgt Delacruz, Josephine Delacruz, or "Jo" to non-military friends.

Staff Sergeant (or Master Sergeant as we called em in the Air Force), are the first Staff NCOs (Senior NCOs) in the Marines and their primary responsibilities are management of the lower ranks. In the Air Force, they typically work with (and technically under but in practice on mutual ground) a lower grade officer such as a Captain - sometimes a Major - in order to run a unit (we call them Flights in the AF). However, if a spot opens up and they need a high speed enlisted to fill it, they grab whomever they think will fit the bill, so long as they are a respectable NCO at the least (though I have seen a Senior Airman work as the personal secretary for the Group Commander (O5 to O6) before). So SSgt Vasquez is fine right there. The problem here actually isn't the rank. It is the Navy! They REALLY don't like mixing enlisted and officers. They have very strict fraternization policies and they enforce them. An Admiral might be able to get away with it, but SSgt Vasquez definitely doesn't share meals with the other officer contingent of the Admiral's staff. Also at this point, unless she is a body guard, she wont be getting the shiny toys anymore, like *new* cyber power armor. So that suit of hers is probably custom, personal, and "old" so it could have a bit of personality that makes it stand out ever so slightly from the rest - it is still a uniform after all. We kept all of our uniforms, even the issued flight suits, and you could tell how well worn it was just by looking at them. They would often be missing flaps and the thigh flashlight pocket was normally ripped off. We didn't have pins and graffiti on them like "born to kill" next to a peace sign, but they were often tailored (particularly by the females). My flight engineer had the lining of his leather flight jacket replaced with a very comfy custom lining, where as I always wore my winter weight jacket, which was big and bulky and required to be carried in winter months, but not in summer (I just didn't like switching out my gear and the winter weight was more comfy to me). One thing we absolutely did was trade flight patches. These patches had our crew logos and names, and we would trade them with other crews, especially foreign ones. A well travelled SSgt could easily have a couple handfuls of unit crests or badges, stuffed in their suit pockets as momentos. I only deployed twice (in two different theatres) and I had around a dozen unique ones. Speaking of which: stories. I was a SSgt myself, but in the Air Force we are the first NCO, not the first SNCO. I was responsible for several airman under me (and had a flight job that made me responsible for the rest of them) and I have stories I could tell, but nothing compared to what an SNCO could tell. After work was done and shop was closed, we would listen to stories the Senior (Senior Master Sergeant, E8) would tell. Always fascinating. Same thing happened with one Major (Air Force had less qualms with mixing enlisted and officers in the aircrew world), who was passed up for promotion but they asked him to come out of retirement due to a shortage of officers. "What are they gonna do? Pass me up for promotion again?" Good times. Anyway, a SNCO like Vasquez would make a good lore faucet, and pumping her for stories would be a realistic way of describing your world through the eyes of someone who has lived in it. Not just military stories either. That Major told us a story of when they worked the firework shows and about always bringing a damp towel. You wrap it around the back of your neck. By the end of it, you can see all of the burn marks on the towel from hot ash and flying sparks.

She must be good at her job. I see she has her staff rigidly standing to attention.

Ben