Legacy of the Confederation III - Characters - Rex Hacker

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BIO:  Born on Terra Prime in Missoula, Montana (one of the few areas of North America not infested by Zerg during the invasion), Rex's original last name was Glasscock. Upon the first hour of his eighteenth birthday, he had it changed. Hacker could be considered, by his own proud admission, to be a full-blooded redneck. He originally chewed tobacco but grew weary of carrying spit bottles with him and changed to cigars, in which he could dispose of the butt in the nearest recyclotron. Though instead of carrying around a bottle he then carried around cigars, he didn't mind.

Hacker served as an SSA spaceport security agent prior to the Zerg War. Once the Roaches attacked a Confederation colony in 2500, Rex immediately resigned from his position to enlist in the UMC Terran Marine Corps divisions. Not particularly adept at hitting targets at a distance, Rex was initially washed from frontline duty. During suppression fire exercises, Hacker excelled. His brute strength allowed him to wield a McCallister M682 10mm minigun. Whereas the M682 generally required a surface mount and a second trooper to feed the ammunition, Hacker had no such restrictions, and there was no better man-portable suppression fire weapon than the M682.

During one reconnaisance mission, Hacker's squad came under heavy Roach attack. Since the squad was so far from friendly fields, artillery and air support were out of range. The Roaches surrounded the squad in short order and picked off the soldiers one at a time. Hacker, seeking to give his fellow soldiers time to retreat, jumped out of his trench, took his M682 (what he referred to as 'Gladys') and unleashed the hellish rain across the skirmishing field at a rate of 2,500 rounds per minute. Before the Roaches could react, the entire skirmish zone was peppered in 10mm depleted uranium rounds. What Zerg weren't sawed in half either exploded as the shells ricocheted around in their bodies or collapsed into pools of skin and flesh as every bone shattered from multiple impacts. The Roaches had completely exposed themselves as they advanced on the Confederation position...and were easy meat. In what Hacker intended to be a sacrifice to buy his squad time to escape resulted instead in the annihilation of the entire Roach force. Congress awarded Hacker the Sol Medal of Honor for his bravery in the face of overwhelming odds and also Fleet Admiral Karla Wainwright awarded him the UMC Silver Star.

Despite his reputation as being a UMC Badass, Hacker was admittedly suffering from certain phobias that most groundpounders would find unusual considering their duties. That said, Hacker fought through them as ordered but was consistently afflicted with nightmares which left him unable to sleep for days afterward and forced him to undergo routine psychological evaluation to ensure he remained fit for the field.