Byron Tenney

Byron Rabinidrath Tenney (a.k.a. Call Sign: Poet; By)

Born in Wyoming to rancher parents, Byron is a former Gunnery Sargeant in the Marines. Since having RECON-12 and recovering, he has picked up an unusual 'burr' in his voice, and when he sings, he is able to move things with his voice.

Byron was raised as and has maintained his skills as Chief Druid of a Druid's Grove. He ran one of only four Druid Groves sanctioned by the Marines and did volunteer work as a pagan chaplain, since the US Military has no recognition process for pagan chaplaincy and will not commission based on pagan religious rank.

He left the Marine Corps and ended up joining up with Rising Tide after being ordered to collect up all of the uninfected females and infants under 2 in a RECON decimated town that they were trying to help. He was told, explicitly, to leave behind any men or children and pull out, and then deliver the women and infants to the facility at USAMRIID. When he asked is CoC what they were going to do to help the men and older children, he was told to mind his own business and do as he was ordered. He walked off the battlefield and disappeared.

It was pure chance, or maybe not, that led him to Rising Tide, as he tried to find out on his own what the -hell- they were doing at USAMRIID that required women and babies.

Byron now handles a cell of Rising Tide focused on tech and the search for the Dormaeu Arch.

Mental characteristics

Gender Identity

Byron identifies as male, but doesn't discuss any of the rest.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Rose to the rank of Gunnery Sargeant in the Marines
Serves as a Cell Coordinator for Rising Tide
Is an active Druid and has maintained a Druid's Grove and served as a chaplain.

Morality & Philosophy

A good example of Byron's particular ethical stance is that, while being wholly dedicated to his promises at his enlistment in the Marines, and serving with honor for almost twenty years, he walked away from the Marines when ordered to do something that he found ethically and morally abhorrent, giving up a lifelong career to follow his ethical compass.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

"So, how did you end up with Rising Tide?"

"Well..." Byron sighed. "Fine, I couldn't trust any unit that was associated with the military, no matter how loosely. No militias, no Guard units. I wasn't sure how much they'd been infested by Macander's poison, you know? We weren't a cohesive force anymore. I mean, yeah, there'd always been rivalries, right? Air Force ragged on the Marines, Army and Navy were constantly at each other's throats. But it was all over silly stuff, yanno? Down at the core, we were all about protecting this nation. THAT nation. It doesn't exist anymore. He and his political machinators set us against one another. The political machine made us question each other and it tore our military esprit-de-corps apart. Your fellow soldiers weren't all on the same page anymore.

I needed to be able to bring Macander down, and I didn't trust my brothers-in-arms to help me do it, so, you know, I went polar. I said "Who has the motivation to want the same thing that I do, and is a full 180 from where I was. I ended up at "Rebel Liberal Terrorist Groups". I could suck up the Liberal Agenda a whole lot better than I could suck up murdering our own people -- women and infants -- for whatever this asshole's endgame was, which, you know, that was a thing I couldn't figure out, either. What the HELL was he trying to GET to? Anyway, I dug a little, while I still had the resources and clearance to get to, and I looked for the baddest, meanest, deepest-dug-in terrorist group I could find, and, lo and behold, the big Bugbear for years had been liberal anarchists and I thought, hey... you know, if they organized, they could make the traction that I need. I -have- organizational skills. I can hone them into an -army-.

Guess what? Liberal anarcho-humanists do not WANT to be an army. They are here to the moon in miles from wanting to be the Marines. I don't know what I was thinking. But here I am, and, you know, at least for my cell, we've found some common ground where we sorta share a single mission, a single goal. Not for the same reasons, and we sure as HELL don't think about using the same mechanisms to get there, but even with the slow plod, I feel like we're still making progress.

I lead the cell. Yeah. They gave me that. I mean, as I said, it's like herding cats. But we've been really successful. We've had a few really good missions, we've rescued a half dozen Rising Tide out of heinous situations and got them back either to their own cell or to a cell that was still active by sending them down the chain. We've put a bit of a bite into some of ZULU's operations here and there. I feel like we're in the loop, and at least I'm not sitting on my ass whining or, worse, sucked into that abyss Macander wanted me in, where I was part of his filthy, disgusting, heinous little plan to, who knows, take over the world or whatever he's after."