Like most of the other boys in the trench, Jacques does not want to be here. Unlike most of the others, he isnt shy about expressing these views. Despite his opposition to the war, he has never been one to shirk his duty, and is determined to fight as hard as he can to keep the lads he trained, and himself, alive. Fatalistic and reserved, his opinions tend to be kept to himself, apart, of course, from his views on the utter failure of the general staff, and the situation they're all in.
M2966 rifle, and all the other standard issue equipment.
A long, doubled edged, straight bladed knife.
Several other odds and ends, including a small tobacco tin of lampblack, and a hip flask, currently empty.
Jacques has also made several impromptu modifications to his uniform, tying ripped scraps of burlap around his arms and shoulders, a longer piece wrapped around his neck, scarf like.
Lastly, slipped in the lining of his trousers is a personal supply of Chevalier's Own brand cigarilloes, rapidly running out.
Jacques' father was born deep in the south of Laufland, drafted into the army and meeting his mother one evening whilst he was on leave. Six months later, he was dead, killed in a push that ended up taking a mere thirty meters of ground, at the cost of seven hundred men. Whilst she was still alive, his mother told him (fictional) stories of his father's heroism, when she wasnt working her fingers to the bone in the armament factory making shells or drinking herself into a stupor.
Jacques was six when she died. An only child, and with no one else to take him in, the boy was sent to one of the Homes for Soldiers Children. Life was hard, but even as a boy he knew that it wasnt just his situation that was awful. He kept himself to himself, the foreman of his mothers old factory taking pity on the boy and giving him an evening job that paid little but kept him out of the alchohol and drugs the other boys were getting themselves into. With no family, it was obvious where the boy would go at sixteen, and, true to form, he was drafted into the army, just like his father.
His natural calmness meant he stayed out of major trouble, only picking up attention once his excellent marksmanship was noticed. He was inducted into the sniper training scheme, but wasnt issued a telescopic sight, there being a major shortage of such, and Jacques was attached instead to the 9th Fusiliers as an ordinary private. He didnt particularly care about this fact, the only real grumble the slight boost in pay he would have received as a designated sniper. Still, he learnt some valuable lessons training alongside other, better marksmen, and they might just keep him alive.