Barbrak Tarabi (NPC)Call Sign: Barfight
Nationality: Afghani
Current Assignment: Flight Engineer, Task Force 47
Age: 51
Languages: Pashto (native), Russian (fluent), English (fluent), Dari (functional), Farsi (pidgin)
Barbrak's erratic career in military aviation began in late 1979 when a Soviet Air Force officer promoted him from janitor to apprentice aircraft mechanic. When the Soviets left Afghanistan, he declined an offer of citizenship, perceiving (correctly) that he would have been a dancing bear in Russia. Instead, he stayed with the Afghan Air Force, where he found himself fighting a losing battle against incompetence, corruption, and a nonexistent maintenance budget. As the country descended into civil war, he fled with his wife and daughters to the Panjshir Valley and entered the service of Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance.
Barbrak's shady association with Ted Bannon goes back to the early days of American post-9/11 involvement in Afghanistan. No one - except possibly Grant Mewes - is entirely certain how an Afghani civilian became attached to a NATO black-world task force. However, given his demonstrated expertise with the ex-Soviet airframes that TF47 operates, no one wants to examine the issue too closely, either.
Barbrak is a short, gnarled, cheerful man with a ready frog-wide grin. He's an unabashed convert to American-style consumerism and a World of Warcraft addict. He has two daughters in college (20 and 23). On paper, his employer is the US Navy in the form of San Diego's NAS North Island, and he has a house in San Diego where his wife of 33 years is quite content to enjoy the peace and quiet while he's on deployment.