Mac
With the reduction in outside resources that came with the Drift restriction, the Systems Alliance presence in Shiloh system was forced to down-size. It was determined that the dated destroyer the Heliod was to be shuttled on Vanar and broken down for resources; to save costs, this was to be done by its own crew.
During the scrapping process, however, personnel and materials started disappearing with greater and greater frequency. Some members of the ship's crew, realizing that they would be released from service once the scrapping was done, had decided to cut and run. A lack of oversight from the officer staff made it easy to make away with enough military-grade hardware to jump-start a new carreer.
When the bad news reached the higher-ups in the Alliance military, blame was cast on the remaining officers and crew of the Heliod. This only magnified the problem - as the remaining crew learned that the reward for their loyalty was only to get blamed for the catastrophe, even the officers started jumping ship left and right. Soon, all that was left of the Heliod and its crew was a stripped, deserted bulkhead slowly rusting on the plains of Vanar.
For a while, the Systems Alliance sent out hunting parties to arrest and capture the deserted crew. But a few months later the Alliance's records of the crew - and therefore any hope of capturing them - was wiped clean by an unknown infiltrator who is believed to have been paid with tech from the ship, or with credits earned by selling it.
Mac is an Ysoki Technomage and was an ensign in the science and engineering staff aboard the Heliod. He was one of the first to jump ship, getting away with a choice collection of weapons and hardware, which he used to fund his carreer as an outlaw and a mercenary. He is often seen doing business in Jackhammer's Shade, and he has procured several rare starship parts for Josephus Gruntforge.
Mac's first foray on the wrong side of the law took him to Jackhammer's Shade accompanied by his companion in crime and long-time friend, a Shirren engineer named Mizzix. Here they pawned a gravitron-exitizing stabilizer dongle looted off of the Heliod for a good price; the dark stranger who bought it also promised them that if they could get him another one like it, he would pay double the amount for that one. After a short discussion, they set back to the Heliod and “liberated” a second stabilizer dongle. While they were there a pair of human privates learned of their exploits and decided to join in – and so the rogue crew of Mac, Mizzix, Jaques and Albert was formed.
After returning to the dark stranger and inquiring about work, they hung around Jackhammer's Shade for a bit but eventually met an enterprising businessman who offered them good pay for the cargo of a certain space transport, and showed them its projected route. The job went smoothly; the owner of the transport had not realzied how unsafe the Shiloh system had gotten, and so it was woefully underprotected considering the value of is cargo – a small variety of Rechitean cheeses. And while the discoloration from handling the cheeses would eventually fade, it lasted long enough to earn Mac his nickname “Black Mac”.
The cheese job had secured The Vermin some contacts in the underground DAF (Dense Asteroid Field) racing community. This was where they got their next job – hired by a prominent DAF racer to eliminate a dangerous competitor. Now, DAF racing is both illegal and highly dangerous, so the biggest worry on the job was to get past the racers’ private security. While the crew managed to sneak into the garage where the competitor’s vehicle was being held, they knew any tampering would be discovered – so they recorded the ship’s resonant hull frequency and hid an electromagnetic mine on an asteroid in the racecourse, rigged to detect the ship’s frequency and pull it into a crash. The job went well, but the tech needed for the mine cut quite harshly into their profits – something they would have to keep in mind for later jobs.
Their next job came in the shape of an enchanting Lashunta who walzed onto their ship one raining evening on Vanar. She had been robbed; a diadem, a prizeless heirloom, had been stolen from her – and she would pay a king’s ransom to get it back. Or so she claimed. While Jaques was normally the face of the group, the dame commanded such extorbitant attributes that Mizzix had to do the talking while the boys focused their efforts on not drooling on their boots. They made their way to the supposed lair of the bandit gang and started infiltrating the strangely silent and lifeless space station. Then the mercenaries sprang forth – It was a set-up! They had been sold out to the disgruntled cheese merchant, who had hoped to get his vengeance and claim the ransom for four Heliod deserters along the way. The fight was long and bloody, but they miraculously made it out alive thanks to Mac’s ingenuity. The electromagnetic mine – which they had previously mounted on the underside of their spaceship for shits and giggles – could be attuned to their space suits, sucking them out of the line of fire with uncanny expediency. Still, The Vermin were disgruntled and demoralized when they retreated to lick their wounds in a dark corner of Jackhammer's Shade.
During the scrapping process, however, personnel and materials started disappearing with greater and greater frequency. Some members of the ship's crew, realizing that they would be released from service once the scrapping was done, had decided to cut and run. A lack of oversight from the officer staff made it easy to make away with enough military-grade hardware to jump-start a new carreer.
When the bad news reached the higher-ups in the Alliance military, blame was cast on the remaining officers and crew of the Heliod. This only magnified the problem - as the remaining crew learned that the reward for their loyalty was only to get blamed for the catastrophe, even the officers started jumping ship left and right. Soon, all that was left of the Heliod and its crew was a stripped, deserted bulkhead slowly rusting on the plains of Vanar.
For a while, the Systems Alliance sent out hunting parties to arrest and capture the deserted crew. But a few months later the Alliance's records of the crew - and therefore any hope of capturing them - was wiped clean by an unknown infiltrator who is believed to have been paid with tech from the ship, or with credits earned by selling it.
Mac is an Ysoki Technomage and was an ensign in the science and engineering staff aboard the Heliod. He was one of the first to jump ship, getting away with a choice collection of weapons and hardware, which he used to fund his carreer as an outlaw and a mercenary. He is often seen doing business in Jackhammer's Shade, and he has procured several rare starship parts for Josephus Gruntforge.
Mac's first foray on the wrong side of the law took him to Jackhammer's Shade accompanied by his companion in crime and long-time friend, a Shirren engineer named Mizzix. Here they pawned a gravitron-exitizing stabilizer dongle looted off of the Heliod for a good price; the dark stranger who bought it also promised them that if they could get him another one like it, he would pay double the amount for that one. After a short discussion, they set back to the Heliod and “liberated” a second stabilizer dongle. While they were there a pair of human privates learned of their exploits and decided to join in – and so the rogue crew of Mac, Mizzix, Jaques and Albert was formed.
After returning to the dark stranger and inquiring about work, they hung around Jackhammer's Shade for a bit but eventually met an enterprising businessman who offered them good pay for the cargo of a certain space transport, and showed them its projected route. The job went smoothly; the owner of the transport had not realzied how unsafe the Shiloh system had gotten, and so it was woefully underprotected considering the value of is cargo – a small variety of Rechitean cheeses. And while the discoloration from handling the cheeses would eventually fade, it lasted long enough to earn Mac his nickname “Black Mac”.
The cheese job had secured The Vermin some contacts in the underground DAF (Dense Asteroid Field) racing community. This was where they got their next job – hired by a prominent DAF racer to eliminate a dangerous competitor. Now, DAF racing is both illegal and highly dangerous, so the biggest worry on the job was to get past the racers’ private security. While the crew managed to sneak into the garage where the competitor’s vehicle was being held, they knew any tampering would be discovered – so they recorded the ship’s resonant hull frequency and hid an electromagnetic mine on an asteroid in the racecourse, rigged to detect the ship’s frequency and pull it into a crash. The job went well, but the tech needed for the mine cut quite harshly into their profits – something they would have to keep in mind for later jobs.
Their next job came in the shape of an enchanting Lashunta who walzed onto their ship one raining evening on Vanar. She had been robbed; a diadem, a prizeless heirloom, had been stolen from her – and she would pay a king’s ransom to get it back. Or so she claimed. While Jaques was normally the face of the group, the dame commanded such extorbitant attributes that Mizzix had to do the talking while the boys focused their efforts on not drooling on their boots. They made their way to the supposed lair of the bandit gang and started infiltrating the strangely silent and lifeless space station. Then the mercenaries sprang forth – It was a set-up! They had been sold out to the disgruntled cheese merchant, who had hoped to get his vengeance and claim the ransom for four Heliod deserters along the way. The fight was long and bloody, but they miraculously made it out alive thanks to Mac’s ingenuity. The electromagnetic mine – which they had previously mounted on the underside of their spaceship for shits and giggles – could be attuned to their space suits, sucking them out of the line of fire with uncanny expediency. Still, The Vermin were disgruntled and demoralized when they retreated to lick their wounds in a dark corner of Jackhammer's Shade.
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