James

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James Papadopoulos

Sometimes bad things have to be done for the greater good. You learned a lot about that during your years as a U.S. Marine. You never liked the job, but you understood the importance of it. There are some things that just have to be done with ruthless efficiency. Lord knows, it's better that you do it than trust these things in the hands of those who aren't ready or actually like doing the dirty work.

There are a lot of people who will never believe or understand these facts. Frankly, you're pretty sure the world is better off that way. If more people accepted that dirty work was occasionally necessary, it would be done more often when it wasn't necessary.

Your brother, John, is one of those who will never understand the importance of what you are able and willing to do. His heart is in the right place. He wants to help save the world, too. He just doesn't recognize that words alone sometimes aren't enough.

You left the U.S. Armed Forces when it became clear to you that the "peacekeeping missions" and "international incidents" you were involved in were more about politics than what what was right and wrong. You left the Marines, but you didn't leave tools they had equipped you with. There are still enemies out there that need to be fought and times when your skills are called for. You just weren't going to let anyone other than yourself and your moral conscience decide who to fight and when to fight them.

The fight to secure a better future for humanity has become complicated in the 21st century. The great evils cut across national boundaries. The greatest threat to the survival of mankind lies not from a brutal regime in one nation or another. It lies in the vast wreckage done by persons of every nation to the Earth itself. It is a struggle that will claim the life of every man, woman and child, even more surely than the possible Armageddons of the past century. It is also a war in which those in power in more countries than not are compromised or held hostage by economic fears, short-sightedness, and a system beholden to the very forces that must be stopped.

History

You and your brother, John, were born to a lower middle-class family. Your parents both worked- your mother as a high-school English teacher, your father as a police officer. Your family always made ends meet, but there was rarely anything extravagant.

You played and excelled at sports in your youth. Unlike some of your friends, no sport fired you up enough to try and make a career out of it. Purpose and direction did not come naturally to you. That is why you joined the United States Marines. You hoped to pick up valuable skills and find direction for your life. You did, though not in a way that you ever would have imagined.

Land wars, and even worse, water wars, were plentiful around the world during your career. You served in several different war-torn nations as a "peacekeeper" during your career. The term couldn't be further from what you experienced. Famine, pestilence, blood and killing were your life. There was nothing peaceful about it.

What you saw over those years touched you. The more that you saw, the more that you came to understand that the underlying reason for all of it was the destruction of the earth's natural resources and politics over who got to profit from it. That is what every war in the 21st century has boiled down to.

You got a job doing construction work after you left the Marines. Knowing how to bring down a building with explosives does wonders for understanding how a building is put together. It paid relatively well, helped to keep you in shape, and wasn't mentally demanding. That left you free to decide how to approach the war you have decided to wage.

Fighting alone for the first time in the better part of a decade wasn't easy. Worse, it wasn't practical. It limited your ability to plan and carry out missions. One man can only do so much. Important undertakings always require a team effort.

You got in touch with Chris and the others through your brother. While John doesn't accept your methods, you do have the same goals. Finding others to communicate with and work with was an important first step. You knew that, among those your brother associated with, you'd be able to find a few like yourself who understood that sometimes force is a necessary evil. You found two of them in Jude and Simone.

Over the past year, the three of you have quietly and successfully conducted three major missions. No one else in the MAGE Institute has knowledge of these major missions. Most inner-circle members know that you, Jude and Simone are more willing to use force, and that you've assisted with minor industrial sabotage from time to time. It is simpler to just keep the doubters and weak-willed unaware of the full details and continue to do what needs doing.

The first involved bombing the construction site of a new regional headquarters for ExxonMobil in New Jersey. You set back the construction by at least six months and cost ExxonMobil a few million dollars. No one was killed, though two executives visiting the site and a dozen construction workers were injured.

The second major mission was your most ambitious yet, involving the bombing of General Electric headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Simone's computer skills got you and Jude into the place, despite heavy security. The two of you shot two security guards entering the main building and one more coming out. The explosives went off as planned less than a half hour after you had left the building. The news reports stated that two more security personnel were killed in the explosion and that the bombing had caused as much as $40 million of damage.

The third major mission was a more personal one. Pearl Skala, an industrial mole for the MAGE Institute in the Three Diamonds Foods Corporation, was starting to get pressure. Jude decided to give Three Diamonds something else to worry about and remove a few of the upper-ups in the corporation. Using information previously garnered from Pearl plus some garnered by Simone "investigation" skills, you were able to plan and carry out the bombing of an upper-level management meeting of Three Diamonds two weeks ago. Six people were killed and the remaining four seriously wounded.

At present, you, Simone and Jude are planning an attack on a heavily polluting coal power plant in Kentucky. The thing is a relic, but political connections have kept the thing running and well subsidized for more than four decades. Removing the thing will be a significant blow against a major source of pollution in the state.

People You Know

Chris Carpenter

Chris has remarkable insight into people and situations. This insight, coupled with an unshakable dedication to saving humanity from it's own mistakes, makes her a formidable individual. Her ability to pull together and keep focused the wide variety of people that constitute the MAGE Institute is equally impressive. Unfortunately, Chris has neither your training, nor your willingness to do whatever is necessary for the cause. She prefers to not know about or turn a blind eye to your more direct activities.

Barry Magdalene

Former Senator Magdalene is a civilian in every sense of the word. He believes that words alone can shield people from harm. The world is neither that simple nor that pleasant. Wars should not be run by committee or by politicians. His personal and political connections are valuable for the the public activities of the MAGE Institute, but he would be adamantly opposed to your extracurricular activities.

Pearl Skala

Pearl is slowly awakening to the realities of war. Her covert activities as an insider at an enemy corporation have provided valuable and damaging information for the political activities of the MAGE Institute. More recently, she has been willing to support limited industrial sabotage, as long as there are assurances that no one is hurt. Some day she'll understand that in war, people always get hurt. Winning is the best way to end the loss of life.

Andrea Skala

While Pearl is waking up to reality, Andrea is sound asleep. Much like Barry, Andrea believes that words are the only legitimate way to struggle against evil. Exactly like Barry, Andrea is incorrect.

John Papadopoulos

Your brother is a good man, but an unstable one. He and the others who believe that words alone will win the day have a role to play. Propaganda is an important part of any war. His heart is in the right place, but he needs to stay out of the way when further actions prove necessary.

Philip Harrison

You respect his faith and his dedication to humanity. He is not as sheltered as some of the other members of the MAGE Institute. He understands suffering and hardship, because he sees it every day. Prayers have value, but they do not replace the need for action. God does not end wars, people do.

Colonel Frank Bartholomew

Frank is one of the walking wounded. You know dozens like him, many of them people you served with. You understand, better than anyone else here, the hells of war that he must have endured. However, his presence in the core group of the MAGE Institute, at the insistence of Chris, makes no sense. Like your brother, he isn't mentally stable. Unlike your brother, he can't actually contribute anything of value.

Tamasa Valappil

Tamasa is a skeptic. She is only involved in the core group because of her technological skills. You're sure that there are others with the same skills, but more dedication than Tamasa. This makes her another strange choice by Chris for the inner circle of the MAGE Institute.

Jamie Schreiber

Jamie is, for lack of a better word, Chris's groupie. Jamie clearly aspires to be exactly like Chris, which is why she'll never wind up like Chris. The two are very close, but you are not convinced that someone as weak-willed as Jamie actually has any place in the core group of the MAGE Institute.

Eve Matthews

Eve serves in the same role as Pearl. She is a mole inside of a corporation that provides ammunition for the political activities of the MAGE Institute. She hasn't yet knowingly provided the information necessary for sabotage. Such information would be very useful.

Simone Cylima

Simone is a fellow soldier in the ongoing war. Her first-hand exposure to the impacts of this century's struggle for dwindling resources and her experiences since then make her willing to do whatever is necessary to win this war. Her technology skills have proven essential to carrying out missions against security-heavy targets.

Judah Isaacson

Judah is a fanatic for the cause. He believes with a fervor that overshadows even Chris at times. Like yourself, he recognizes that winning the struggle is absolutely essential. However, he believes that direct action is not worth the risk if it can be traced back to the MAGE Institute.

Jude Fairchild

Jude is damaged goods, but he has skills, connections and a willingness to do whatever is necessary. He represses his emotions so strongly that they can become explosive at times. His abusive relationship with your brother John haunts you, but John can choose to leave any time he wants. Even your brother isn't as important as the opportunities presented by working with Jude and Simone.

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