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Flynn's World of Samardan - Sword and Planet Action in an Exotic World (Updated 6/11)
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<blockquote data-quote="Stormwynd" data-source="post: 2819814" data-attributes="member: 5913"><p><strong>Character backstory: Jonas Solomonas</strong></p><p></p><p>by Stormwynd</p><p></p><p>My parents and I left Lithuania when I was very young, too young to remember anything substantial. I assume because they wanted a better life and heard about opportunities in the United States from our cousins who had already moved there. My parents packed many of their belongings, gave to family or sold what we could not take, and we left for America.</p><p></p><p>We settled in Chicago's Little Lithuania, near the intersection of Marquette Road and Western Avenue on the city's southwest side, where some family had come years before. I attended school in the United States and learned English, while my parents and cousins kept the language and traditions of home alive.</p><p></p><p>Those were good times: family and friends together, growing up in a mix of American and Lithuanian culture. There were good times and bad times, but the good times were worth dealing with the bad times.</p><p></p><p>I was greatly influenced by seeing crime be such a problem in Chicago during my youth, so I decided to become a cop after school. I applied to the academy and was accepted, which was probably due to luck as much as to my lack of an Lithuanian accent when speaking English.</p><p></p><p>On graduation day from the academy, I was approached by a solemn man claiming to represent the federal government. One of my instructors (well, the one instructor who actually liked me) had passed my name along because he knew I was fluent in Lithuanian. Apparently the federal government was forming a new intelligent unit, the Office of Strategic Services, and my instructor was good friends with a recruiting agent.</p><p></p><p>The OSS was worried about rumors of German and Russian intelligence activity in Lithuania. Nazi Germany was becoming more and more belligerent, and the Communist Russians were extending their influence further and further west. They needed more information about activity in Lithuania, people on the ground collecting basic intelligence.</p><p></p><p>They were interested in me because I spoke both Lithuanian and English fluently and with the right accent, and I knew the customs so I would fit in well. By coincidence, my family had also received word that our grandmother who had stayed behind in Lithuania was ill, which the OSS already knew about. My cover would be returning to Lithuania to care for Grandma, while I would work among laborers who would be likely targets for recruitment by German and Russian agents. I was young and wanted to help change the world, so I accepted.</p><p></p><p>After training, I returned to Lithuania and moved into an apartment near Grandma, helping the extended family care for her. I also became a laborer, listening for news of Nazi or Communist organizers. Communist activity was apparently on the increase, and I passed information on to my local OSS contact.</p><p></p><p>Things were going smoothly until June 15th, 1940: the Russians invaded and occupied Lithuania, replacing the government with a Communist puppet regime. Later we found out that Germany and Russia had signed a non-aggression pact and had divided Europe between themselves. My OSS contact was either killed in the fighting or by Communist agents, but my cover was apparently still good because I lived.</p><p></p><p>I eventually fell in with the resistance as a member of the Lithuanian Activist Front. We fought several guerrilla skirmishes with Red Army troops, and once we even freed a group of fellow resistance fighters from a Communist prison. Well, freed the ones that had not been tortured to death already.</p><p></p><p>Then things changed completely again: On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked Russia. The resistance took advantage of this distraction and rallied partisan support in many cities, even taking control of them and declaring Lithuanian independence once again.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately the Germans had other plans. They took control of the government and started rounding up laborers and shipping them to Germany to act as forced labor, and killing Jews by the scores. The resistance now became an anti-Nazi resistance, fighting the German occupiers and hoping the Allies would free us so Lithuania could be independent once more.</p><p></p><p>I was part of a small resistance cell outside of Klaipeda, where we mostly harassed German troops and supply convoys. One day I received word that my friend Abraham Gurwitsch has been rounded up with other Jews by an SS death squad. Unwisely we attacked the squad and freed most of the prisoners, though we lost several of our own people.</p><p></p><p>In 1944 Germany's weakness was apparent, and thus the Soviets started to invade Lithuania once again. We were fighting the Germans and the Russians both, and the chaos was unending. Here I was, a cop playing agent playing laborer playing resistance fighter, fighting two armies that were smashing into one another.</p><p></p><p>In January of 1945, the Red Army attacked Klaipeda. We tried to fight the Russians as the Germans retreated, but we were vastly outnumbered and out gunned. My cell was eventually pinned down in the alleyways, chased by Red Army troops. I yelled to my comrades to run and keep going, and I turned and faced the pursuing Communists. After hiding behind some rubble, I screamed madly and fired randomly towards the troops.</p><p></p><p>The last thing I remember is massive pain, followed by darkness and an approaching bright light.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stormwynd, post: 2819814, member: 5913"] [b]Character backstory: Jonas Solomonas[/b] by Stormwynd My parents and I left Lithuania when I was very young, too young to remember anything substantial. I assume because they wanted a better life and heard about opportunities in the United States from our cousins who had already moved there. My parents packed many of their belongings, gave to family or sold what we could not take, and we left for America. We settled in Chicago's Little Lithuania, near the intersection of Marquette Road and Western Avenue on the city's southwest side, where some family had come years before. I attended school in the United States and learned English, while my parents and cousins kept the language and traditions of home alive. Those were good times: family and friends together, growing up in a mix of American and Lithuanian culture. There were good times and bad times, but the good times were worth dealing with the bad times. I was greatly influenced by seeing crime be such a problem in Chicago during my youth, so I decided to become a cop after school. I applied to the academy and was accepted, which was probably due to luck as much as to my lack of an Lithuanian accent when speaking English. On graduation day from the academy, I was approached by a solemn man claiming to represent the federal government. One of my instructors (well, the one instructor who actually liked me) had passed my name along because he knew I was fluent in Lithuanian. Apparently the federal government was forming a new intelligent unit, the Office of Strategic Services, and my instructor was good friends with a recruiting agent. The OSS was worried about rumors of German and Russian intelligence activity in Lithuania. Nazi Germany was becoming more and more belligerent, and the Communist Russians were extending their influence further and further west. They needed more information about activity in Lithuania, people on the ground collecting basic intelligence. They were interested in me because I spoke both Lithuanian and English fluently and with the right accent, and I knew the customs so I would fit in well. By coincidence, my family had also received word that our grandmother who had stayed behind in Lithuania was ill, which the OSS already knew about. My cover would be returning to Lithuania to care for Grandma, while I would work among laborers who would be likely targets for recruitment by German and Russian agents. I was young and wanted to help change the world, so I accepted. After training, I returned to Lithuania and moved into an apartment near Grandma, helping the extended family care for her. I also became a laborer, listening for news of Nazi or Communist organizers. Communist activity was apparently on the increase, and I passed information on to my local OSS contact. Things were going smoothly until June 15th, 1940: the Russians invaded and occupied Lithuania, replacing the government with a Communist puppet regime. Later we found out that Germany and Russia had signed a non-aggression pact and had divided Europe between themselves. My OSS contact was either killed in the fighting or by Communist agents, but my cover was apparently still good because I lived. I eventually fell in with the resistance as a member of the Lithuanian Activist Front. We fought several guerrilla skirmishes with Red Army troops, and once we even freed a group of fellow resistance fighters from a Communist prison. Well, freed the ones that had not been tortured to death already. Then things changed completely again: On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked Russia. The resistance took advantage of this distraction and rallied partisan support in many cities, even taking control of them and declaring Lithuanian independence once again. Unfortunately the Germans had other plans. They took control of the government and started rounding up laborers and shipping them to Germany to act as forced labor, and killing Jews by the scores. The resistance now became an anti-Nazi resistance, fighting the German occupiers and hoping the Allies would free us so Lithuania could be independent once more. I was part of a small resistance cell outside of Klaipeda, where we mostly harassed German troops and supply convoys. One day I received word that my friend Abraham Gurwitsch has been rounded up with other Jews by an SS death squad. Unwisely we attacked the squad and freed most of the prisoners, though we lost several of our own people. In 1944 Germany's weakness was apparent, and thus the Soviets started to invade Lithuania once again. We were fighting the Germans and the Russians both, and the chaos was unending. Here I was, a cop playing agent playing laborer playing resistance fighter, fighting two armies that were smashing into one another. In January of 1945, the Red Army attacked Klaipeda. We tried to fight the Russians as the Germans retreated, but we were vastly outnumbered and out gunned. My cell was eventually pinned down in the alleyways, chased by Red Army troops. I yelled to my comrades to run and keep going, and I turned and faced the pursuing Communists. After hiding behind some rubble, I screamed madly and fired randomly towards the troops. The last thing I remember is massive pain, followed by darkness and an approaching bright light. [/QUOTE]
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