SHADOWS ANGELUS II

TYGER 10 YEARS AFTER

At the end of the campaign, Tyger married Marcy (which is widely known). From there Tyger would remain on the force as a Master Sergeant for some time. Mostly because of Tyger being fairly hotheaded and almost always looking for a chance to dust off and stomp some bad guys with random Entities and Power Armor being his favorite... but he would never turn down a fight.

He would give an honest attempt at being a good NCO to Brogan's Entity Busters... but Tyger being Tyger, he would fail in a lot of cases simply because of his nature. This in mind, he would spend a lot of time at work with Brogan and Jama. Off work, Tyger would also try his best to visit the Carpenter Household working on his Bonsai and help out to the best of his ability. While he would be somewhat aware of the falling out between Elizabeth and her father, Tyger would not take any overt action—after all, what experience does he have with children and how they behave when they are older? Instead, he would bring this up to Jama in more or less conversational tones to tell her that "Things just don't seem right between Nate and Liz. Dunno what it's about, but those two don't talk much, and that just don't sit right with me somehow".

Meetings with Hemelshot would most likely be both business and pleasure. Considering what Yar wrote up recently, Tyger could and may assist in what Hemelshot would be pulling—especially dabbling in the criminal realm. I mean, he does still have a criminal background. He would also try to help keep him on the up and up too from the perspective of "I once went down that road. You really don't want to start on it Rich. It's a hard road that is hard to get off of." I highly doubt Tyger would be able to influence Hemelshot one way or another... but he would do his best. Tyger would also try to keep tabs on Yiska with varying amounts of success. When they would cross paths, he would be welcomed and treated as a brother or cousin that comes to visit only on Christmas or something similar.

In the 10 Years After stories I wrote for Tyger and Marcy, it is mentioned that Marcy had made captain awhile ago, and Tyger was just pinned at the end. Obviously this means that he had to hit Lieutenant at some point. The reason for this would be a growing addiction to the Zero System.

I remember the Zero System being highly experimental with Tyger as the primary test-pilot for it. Given the basics of its design (analyzing the brain waves of the pilot and tapping into inner thoughts, feelings, etc., etc.) there were some unseen long-term side effects. As Tyger used the Slue Steel Zero, his urge to tap the Zero System grew. Sometimes he was able to resist doing so, others he was not. Even though he was able to resist going into a berserk rage eventually, sometimes he would do it willingly. Despite his relative safe handling of the system overall, those on duty with Tyger would be sure to make sure the enemy was the closest thing to him just in case.

This slow, quiet addiction would begin to manifest itself as Tyger becoming more withdrawn unless he was in the mecha and showing some lack of interest in doing anything outside of it. In general he would show some signs of addiction and withdraw symptoms sort of what you get with minor drugs or that teetering step before you are labeled an alcoholic. While I do not know what those are entirely, those very close to Tyger would question what is going on and would be concerned. Marcy would be the first to notice this, as at any given moment he would pick up suddenly, head to the garage and dust off. And when things got dry to the point that there was no reason to deploy Power Armor anywhere, he would then start poking the net to climb the ranks of the Supreme 10.

After a few (nearly fatal) incidents in the arena, Marcy would approach Brogan and/or Jama to request some way to keep him out of that "goddammed blue monster" as often as possible. The first solution would be to promote him to Lieutenant which would force him to remain grounded in many circumstances. It would also imply that he could be training recruits in something other than the Blue Steel Zero as it would not be appropriate to use for training.

To touch a little on Tyger's pilot career, while in XSWAT, he would prove to be the pilot that all other XWAT pilots (at least those with aspirations for greatness) would seek to be like him... his past and (currently hidden) problems notwithstanding. Even in the current time with his addiction to the Zero System, he would be admired for his ability to withstand its mental demands. For the Supreme 10 portion of his career, Tyger would face off against Tank McNamara for the #9 spot within a year after the end of our last session and beat him. At some point between then and 10 years later, Tyger would take the #8 and #7 slots—both wins but not on a first go basis and defiantly not without consequences. Tyger ended up in the hospital several times after many of the failed matches, one of them leading to Tyger's promotion to Lieutenant. Despite the fact he hates being behind a desk, he still hits the streets as often as possible.

In line with the above, sometime after the winning of the #7 slot and before the 10 Years Later story ends, Tyger is promoted to Captain with the generation of the 1st Mechanized Tactical Armored Corps. This served several purposes: One, it pulled Tyger further away from the front lines (much to his chagrin and despite his attempts to go out anyway). It also assisted his slow rehabilitation from the siren's call of the Zero System. Due to his duties as a Captain of his very own unit, it also forced Tyger to stay grounded and away from any arena fighting—except to defend his title; effectively taking him out of the running for #1 for the foreseeable future (a situation that those above him would like to maintain for as long as possible I imagine.). Again, I have the feeling that this was because of Jama, Brogan and Marcy conspiring to keep him off the streets with the Blue Steel Zero.

Speaking of the Mechanized Tactical Armored Corps (MTAC), I wrote that the primary reason for it being created to assist by pooling some heavy hitting mechanized resources (armored spinners, power armor, combat borgs, etc.) into a single rapid-response team. There would not be many units (as doing so would be tactically stupid), with a majority of them being deployed around Angelus itself and rotating between these points as well as XSWAT HQ to respond to outside attacks and provide rapid-response backup. Again this unit is fairly small and does not see a whole lot of field time because I doubt that there are that many problems that you need a full or partial squad of mixed Power Armor, Combat Borgs and Armored Spinners on the scene.

Considering the expanse of time, I do not know the lifespan of Clades. Either way, I imagine Tyger is starting to slow down a bit. He is not as active, rough and tumble or as much of a troublemaker as he used to be. This could be for several reasons, including, but not limited to his past finally catching up to him in all the injuries he has suffered during the game and afterwards. Just like how the military has a way of making people feel a LOT older than they are due to the active and sometimes demanding lifestyle (pain/stiffness in the shoulders, upper and lower back, knees, ankles and so on mostly).

Another reason for this decline of activity could be Marcy and Tyger actually having a child together (depending on the advances in science as well as the genetic compatibility between humans and Clades—Ross briefly mentioned this as a way to pull Tyger away from the picture). If they do have a chilled, it would be far too young to be in the sequel... but would require a lot of Tyger's attention and would give him another reason to take it easy from here on.

Tyger and Marcy's relationship should also be mentioned as well. I figure that after over 10 years of marriage, that they are as close as ever with Tyger being fiercely loyal to her (just like he is with XSWAT). Despite this, they would, of course have their fights (as all marriages have at some point), but nothing terribly straining on the relationship. In addition, Tyger would try to get Marcy's family to accept him for her sake. However if this is a total impossibility, he would stop making the efforts and instead simply attend family events with her and be the 'silent, supporting husband'... or at least make the attempt. I don't see him being too quiet for too long on certain things however.