Kelda Orayen

Background

You're an escaped slave, on the run.

You once were a military sniper, killing enemies of the Empire from afar. But you had no rights, no freedoms, and no prospects for promotion while that mBari was in charge of your unit. The opportunity to change your life came during a border skirmish with Arthirian ships - your transport was lightly damaged, and in the confusion you made your way to a survival pod and left the Empire forever.

After three days in the pod, your food and water was running low. Fortunately your distress beacon was picked up by a freighter captain. You had to bribe him to take you to the nearest Guild planet. Fortunately you had a small cache of precious gemstones from your home world, stolen many months ago when you were planning for this escape. He dropped you off on a dump of a world and left.

You had been born and raised on an industrial world in the Empire, so a farm world was new to you. However, your pleasure at seeing blue skies and wide fields of beetle grain was soon turned sour when you came to a small town. The inhabitants treated you with mistrust, at best, and outright hostility at worst. However, you stopped at a tavern for a drink, and that was where you met Relena.

After a few drinks (and something she called "rugle nuts"), your tongue started to loosen and you found yourself telling her the story of your escape from the Empire. You told her that what you really needed was a new identity and a job. For your remaining gemstones, she was able to arrange exactly that. She had just purchased a ship - a refitted draca transport. It wasn't exactly the military style ship that you were used to, but it was armed - just - and could carry cargo.

Relena is the only person you really trust on this side of the Zone - and you're not actually too sure why. She certainly seems trustworthy, although she has a bit of a chip on her shoulder where men are concerned. That may cause some problems with the pilot - a guy named Lance, who has a number of cybernetic components of dubious capability. He is, however, the only anthropos (possibly in the galaxy) who is capable of piloting a refitted draca cybership.

Noumalia, the zin-shee engineer, definitely has something stuck up her furry ass, and you really don't trust the medic that Relena hired on Spicer VII - Unity. As if a name like that is going to inspire people. Sure, he's a competent medic, but you can't help thinking that there's something going on with him that you don't understand.