Description

Personality

Alexei views the glass as being half full of piss. The war sucks, life sucks and the rest of you can go to hell, all he wanted was to be a shepherd. He’s given to drink and is a black marketer. If you want something, he can get it for you, for a fee of course. If he tells you, that he’ll get you something, you will get it. He doesn’t sell secretes though and something told to him in confidence will never pass his lips.

Equipment

M2966 bolt-action rifle and bayonet, which he cleans in an obsessive, nearly religious manner.
Alexei also has managed to collect a trench knife with a triangular blade and knuckleduster, a Laudikian officer’s pocket watch and a pack full of contraband.

History

Alexei was born in the little town of Galich, northern Laufland. His father was a soldier on his third liberty leave from the army and his mother worked in the town’s small mill, where the raw wool from the local herds is turned into yarn. He and his mother lived with his aunt and uncle, on of the few married couples in the region. He grew up with a number of cousins and a few half-siblings. As a young boy, his uncle put him to work, tending part of the flock.

When he entered into school, he continued to tend the sheep when he could. At night, he would pray to god to allow him to remain a civilian. He never told anyone, fearing he would be shunned by his peers, for being a coward. When he turned sixteen, he was part of the majority being chosen to serve as soldiers. From that day forwards, he turned his back on god, believing himself betrayed.

He fared well in the training camp. He was a good shot (not good enough for sniper training though) and decent with the bayonet. Once out of the month-long training, he was sent to the 9th Laufland Fusiliers. It was his luck that the regiment had just been placed in reserve. After a week of doing nothing, the regiment was sent to the front. Those first three weeks on the line was hell. Two weeks of near constant bombardment turned him into a sleepless zombie and the massive Laudikian assault afterwards nearly killed him.

In the following weeks, he became very good friends with a number of quartermasters in the rear, trading them enemy helmets, weapons and uniforms for extra rations and other items he found that his fellow soldiers wanted. With net of suppliers and getting on the good side of his sergeant, Alexei was promoted after one year to corporal. Managing another year on the line, he was allowed to go home for his liberty leave.