Mercenaries
The Interstellar Commission’s influence does not extend fully to the edges of human-populated space. Especially patrols by its military arm, the Komplex, are few and far between. Large areas have been effectively left to their own devices. It is therefore not surprising that these regions have become the favourite haunts of people who, for want of a better word, shall be called adventurers.
Criminal gangs and warlords acting like kings rule despotically over these sectors, living off the proceeds of exploitation, smuggling, and raiding merchant ships and occasionally even neighbouring planets. It is a hard environment for its inhabitants to live in, with each day holding ever tougher challenges. Many of those who were shaped in this forge of adversity and deprivation and have survived intact have become highly sought-after mercenaries. They are skilled specialists in their respective fields and thus a good way to compensate for shortcomings among your core troops. Alternatively, they make good cannon fodder when things get dicey. Because they all have one central weakness – they cannot trust anybody and nobody trusts them.
In addition to the five most powerful corporations on the Interstellar Commission, other megacorporations also wield considerable influence. One of them is the Wu Ānquán corporation which specialises in security “solutions”.
Gordon Freep
There is a saying on Skrot: “Live on Skrot – die on Skrot.”
Gordon, who was born there, wants to break this cycle and would do anything to finally leave Skrot.
Of course, Gordon doesn’t consider being a scrap dealer to be his calling in life, he leaves that to others. It does, however, make a wonderful front for a mercenary business and other shady but lucrative dealings.
Zcann
Zcann is a robot who is older than a thousand years and was dug up by Gordon when the latter was a teenager.
He presents the persona of a “dumb” dismantling robot, because owning robots with his level of AI capability is punishable by death these days. Apart from himself, only Gordon knows his secret.
While working, he observes people’s behavior with keen interest. He finds it hard to believe that they have changed so little during the centuries of his hibernation.
Tilka
Tilkka is part of Gordon’s gang because she regularly needs money to improve and repair her exoskeleton.
The Yingling, who is dependent on an exoskeleton after many years spent in zero gravity, always has several projects on the go at any one time. New components for her body, her rifle, other cyborgs, or Zcann: there is always something for her to tinker with.
Wreckers
Wreckers on Skrot spend their time dismantling scrap. They tend to augment their bodies with usually one or two mechanical implants which they fashion from whatever the scrap planet has to offer.
When Gordon needs help, he can rely on them. They have taken apart many an enemy with their heavy-duty tools.
Natalie
Natalie Wu is the daughter of one of the richest men in the galaxy, Yang Wu, super-CEO of Wu Ānquán, the galaxy’s most powerful security corporation.
As such, she can indulge her love of capriciousness and individual privilege to the full. Such as when she is avoiding her corporate obligations by escaping on board a luxury space yacht with a Torpék as her lover.
Natalie’s mechanical arm is Wu Ānquán’s latest cybernetic development, featuring integrated poison claws which she can extend at will.
Dohan Tal
Dohan Tal belongs to one of the most prestigious families on the planet Cashmer. The ocular implants which their company produces are among the most popular cyber upgrades around. However, his family is about as incompatibly distant from the Wus as his DNA is from Rexx’s.
Because Torpéks are by and large not exactly considered to be sex symbols, Dohan suspects that Natalie is more into his intellect. He certainly doesn’t just appreciate her simply for her physical advantages; her monetary assets are also extremely attractive to him.
Rexx
The beasts of Korr are not only considered to be the ugliest pets in the galaxy, but also the worst-tempered ones. This has not stopped Natalie from doting devotedly on Rexx, whom she received from her father as an egg and laboriously hatched and reared with her own two hands.
If it were up to Dohan, Rexx would have been abandoned about ten planetfalls ago.
If Rexx cannot get his teeth into something he doesn’t like the look of, he can spit a corrosive substance at short range instead.
Twins
“I wonder what the twins’ actual names are…,” Natalie is wont to ponder occasionally.
Natalie changes her duo of bodyguards quite regularly, usually either due to injury or the individuals’ inability to cope with the demands of the job.
The current double pack appears to be very reliable, but that is pretty much all she can say about them.
Sue and Lu? Dodger and Badger? Something like that.
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