Jack of Harts

Melissa wasn’t a one woman wrecking crew. There were several of them, but Melissa had the largest body count by far. Counting the bodies she lost or damaged, here. She dared the bad guys to shoot her, and they did. A lot. She lost more heads and limbs than I could count, and they even managed to kill her a few times. She spent a lot of time in the body and fender shop, but she kept everyone else from being hit whenever the Hurst assassins made another try on Old Man Callahan. I remember this one time she jumped into the line of fire when the assassins opened up with a couple schoolgirls in the background. The police responded first that time, talked to the schoolgirls in question, and then dropped a full bag of nannies next to her. They then proceeded to pay no attention at all as she pulled herself back together and limped away. You could say that she made some friends on days like those.

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Melissa is unique amongst the fighter cybers in that she joined the Wolfenheim Project before her pilot did. She’d been part of Megan’s merry little band of mayhem makers for a month before he showed up, and she maintained her membership in good standing until the day we left. Melissa was one of the heavy weapons specialists, and I think she had a bit of an adrenalin rush complex. Or whatever passes for one of those when it comes to cybernetic intelligences. She was definitely a big gun nut, and it was something else to see her whipping out her big guns as she walked into battle with another of the Hurst assassins sent to deal with Old Man Callahan. Walked. She had this idea that if they saw her hiding behind cover, they’d think she was afraid of them. So she walked into battle, guns blazing, and dared the bad guys to shoot her.

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John Jones was born on Mars. Think about it. Let it sink in for a moment. Then move along. The real John Jones was a lawyer on Mars, using the hyper-intelligence that came with his particular reaction to the Peloran Treatments to study the law and weaponize it against the government. He specialized in government corruption cases, tracking down and prosecuting governmental abuse and waste throughout the Martian system. He was one of the very few lawyers with the knowledge and experience to work in every Martian colony, whether they were of American, Chinese, Russian, or other lineage. And many Martians give him credit for helping to unify the legal codes of every Martian colony, the first step in creating a united Mars. This all assumes that I have correctly deduced who John Jones was before he joined the Wolfenheim Project. I could be wrong. It’s happened once or twice, you know.

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