Montgomery Osbert III

Montgomery Osbert III, better known as Osbert, is an agent in the Department of Personnel, one of the better-known agent trainers. He is currently the PPC's longest-serving agent, and one of the oldest human agents as of 2 July, 2009 (his 79th birthday). He is written by KGarrett.

Appearance
The first thing many people notice about Osbert that sets him apart from any other bespectacled, rather unimposing-looking old man is his bright red helmet, and the two horns that jut out from its sides. He is always seen in this helmet, removing it only when he's alone in the showers, and the headgear has become synonymous enough with him that he can be instantly recognised just from the helmet. Underneath it, he has somewhat long grey hair, kept orderly and neatly combed but otherwise unremarkable, his fairly short grey beard also kept trimmed. The wear of age is obvious on Osbert's face, wrinkles and age-lines marking otherwise strong-looking features. His grey eyes are usually seen behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses, though he has been known to opt for contacts on a couple of occasions.

Standing at about 5'6" and slim of build, Osbert's physical figure is by no means imposing, though he would be quick to inform you that he used to be a bit more powerfully built when he was younger. Physically, there isn't much remarkable about Osbert at all, which seems to be how he prefers it.

Personality
Osbert has a reputation for being incredibly brusque and harsh, as well as being one of the most unforgiving and demanding agent trainers in the entire Department of Personnel. This reputation, as anyone who meets him can attest, is entirely justified. While experience in the PPC, as well as World One experience, has left him utterly detached to most things, he is incredibly thorough and demanding when administering Basic Training. Many trainers effectively just put something pointy in the recruit's hand and shove them into an RC, but Osbert refuses to allow any recruit to leave until he is confident they can handle any situation that comes up in a mission, especially stressing combat techniques and often telling them to return whenever possible for further training. He is known to have very high expectations of his fellow agents, especially veterans, and doesn't hesitate to berate and abuse them if they falter, in an attempt to set them straight.

Showing no quarter or hesitation with his sarcastic mockery, he approaches most things in a totally deadpan manner; having quite literally seen it all, he keeps a cool head in pretty much all situations. The one known exception is striking, damaging, or even touching his distinctive red helmet. This invariably causes him to become enraged enough to assault the person responsible, for unknown reasons; he also responds angrily to requests to remove his helmet, though this doesn't cause a violent reaction from him. He tends to speak very formally and almost never uses vulgarity, though on the occasions he is angry enough (or startled enough) to cuss it comes out as a mixture of PPC and World One expletives, such as "Bloody Flaming Denethor from Hell." Preferring to avoid conflict where possible, he'll attempt to talk down even the most belligerent adversary before eventually using force.

History
Nothing is really known about Osbert's history prior to his recruitment, or the circumstances of said recruitment, as he and the Flowers are the only ones left who know and neither are willing to divulge that information. Notable as the fourth ever non-Flower agent, he has been a member of the PPC as long as any current agent can remember, and only Makes-Things and the Flowers have served in the PPC longer than himself. What is known is that he was an assassin for a very long time, before being transferred to training new agents sometime around 2004, on the grounds that he was believed to have reached an age where he was "too old" for field work.

While he treated this decision with contempt and bewilderment, he accepted the actual transfer with grace, and now works diligently to pass down the needed skills to the new generation of agents. During the Macrovirus Epidemic, he led a large number of agents and recruits into the Department of Personnel's training rooms and a number of nearby RCs, sealing them inside to protect them from the macroviruses after enough food and other supplies were gathered to outlast the quarantine.

This proved rather fortunate, as they made their way out during the beginning phases of the 2008 Mary Sue Invasion, unintentionally being perfectly placed to defend against the initial attacks on Operations, likely Personnel, and Upstairs (these training rooms were located near the Department of Operations). Once the fighting settled down, Osbert returned to his usual routines, albeit slightly hindered by his steadily advancing age.

Osbert's Raiders
"Osbert's Raiders" is the name Osbert gave to the group of recruits and agents he ended up sealed in with during the Macrovirus Epidemic and resulting quarantine. Not content to just waste time until they were rescued, he subjected the group to intense training, both to take their mind off of the situation and to prepare them to face whatever threats presented themselves. The name was coined shortly after they started, as a way to promote unit cohesion and teamwork. Hardened by the constant training and given battle experience by the occasional macroviruses that broke in to attack, they were quickly moulded into a capable fighting force, proving extremely effective in the subsequent invasion.

After the fighting ended, Osbert gave the group a more solid purpose: while they were just regular agents, as opposed to a Security Department such as the DIA, they would operate as a quick-response force in times of crisis. His idea for this came from his observation that it often took precious time for the PPC to mobilise to face such threats, and that a group able to immediately snap into action would save lives and make the incident much easier to contain.

While the group assembles for training and drill on a daily basis, they are still regular agents and under the authority of their respective department heads, and it is only during an emergency that they are intended to act in the group's original manner. This also means they have no real modifications to the uniform to separate them from their peers, and the only thing that really makes a Raider distinct from any other agent is the blood red cap most of them wear.

One notable downside to Osbert's training is that it has given many of them an outlook more fitting to a military unit than a typical PPC job, so their mission performance tends to suffer some, which is why Raiders are never partnered with each other, in an attempt to balance things out. The Raiders number around 150. These 150 Raiders are divided into three fifty-man companies, each named after an influential British leader, as follows:


 * Thatcher Company


 * Churchill Company


 * Lionheart Company (Was going to be Drake Company, but Osbert decided against it due to the existence of an Agent Drake.)

Each of the three is commanded by an experienced agent, answering only to Osbert when it comes to Raider deployments. Each of the three companies is capable of splitting into two twenty-five-man platoons, or ten five-man squads, if the situation requires it. Often, a split company will work with either split elements of other companies, or a fully-formed company. Though the main Raider companies do not accept recruits, there is a reserve group that accepts any agent who can pass a selection process. Reserves can be told apart from main Raiders by their slightly darker caps, but undergo the exact same training, the main difference being that they deploy when additional manpower is needed and take the place of Raiders in the main companies who are unavailable for one reason or another.

Appearances

 * "2009 Memorial Party" (RP)
 * Arrival and start of a conversation with Milask
 * Start of a conversation with Marcus Langston and Luke Celinus