I have a thing for the era of the Great War. The clash between the old imperial ways and the sudden rise of science makes for an interesting conflict (even if it was a war over nothing which accomplished nothing). I've always wanted to do a story in World War 1 involving displaced technology. Leviathan beat me to the punch but I can still make up my own alternate history :p

The uniform and kit he is wearing is based predominantly on German uniforms circa 1915. The jetpack, on the other hand, is based on a jetvest from the 1960's.

The jump infantry were predominantly made up of young lads and men of slight builds. The reason for this was the immense weight of the pack coupled with a fully-grown adult was more than could be borne above the ground. So it fell to lads like Adler to pilot the archaic and dangerous contraptions into enemy lies for bombing runs, support missions, shock tactics, and even trench raids.

Adler was months away from his 18th birthday, the date that marked the end of his flying days. It was a terrifying notion to think of being forced to give up his wings and then be shoved out into the trenches to die like so many others. It was in those trenches that he had found his lucky bludger, a cricket bat that some daft Briton had brought with them to the front-lines only to loose it to a spirited charge by the jetpack team.

Almost as many youths died to malfunctions and misjumps as did to enemy fire, but none of them would give up the rush of flight and sudden falling that accompanied every jet boost. That shared rush made them a close-knit family. A family of maniacs.