[CHAR] Trade Station Alpha Reboot

[TheUnknowable]

My character sheets:

Christopher Briggs

Name: Christopher Briggs
Age: 19
Species: Human
Appearance: Skinny, 5'8", toned
Personality: Scientifically minded. Hardworking, and likes to learn, though up to this point he's only used it to try and get ahead at work and in life.
Skills overview: Technician 3rd class, Tai Chi/Karate/Wing Chun style Martial arts.
Position on crew: Jr. engineer, later he'll become a market analyst/adviser
Years on crew: 0, first day
Bio: He grew up on Earth with his 4 siblings and parents. When he turned 16 he got a job at a factory that made high-voltage capacitors. He eventually moved out of his parent's house, shortly after turning 18, and into a factory-apartment, an old factory building into which people had moved shipping containers and installed amenities into them to make them into apartments. After work he often walked to a Buddhist monastery two miles away where they taught self-defense courses to earn money to make up for the almost nonexistance of donations.
Three years after getting the job, he was contacted by his cousin. The video email told him about his cousin's new ship, and asked him to come to trade station alpha to work for his cousin. Eventually he arranged for his cousin to pay for his journey, and he quit his job. He boarded the space elevator to EarthSat 1, then arranged passage on a salvage ship that was heading for Trade Station alpha.
They took the hyper-gate to the station, and a few days later he was there.

Griszma

Name: Griszma
Age: 17 (maturity the same as a late twenties human)
Species: Hibros
Appearance: 6'4". Black Hair covering her body. 29" tail. Wears black leather armor made from the hides of animals she killed, with a hole in the pants for her tail. Generally carries her laser bow (a spring loaded bow with the power from the springs being transferred into the bow's UV laser emitter. Can burn a partially cauterized hole in a human 10cm deep.) and two slightly curved titanium daggers.
Personality: Concerned with duty and honor. Currently, her duty lies with Julius. She will stick by him until he betrays her or no longer needs her.
Skills overview: Hand-to-hand fighting, Ship-to-ship combat, Tracking, Electronics
Position on crew: First Officer
Years on crew: 3.5
Bio: She grew up like any other Hibros, living in a forests of her homeworld, learning to shoot with a pump-bow (it created energy by moving a magnet through a magnetic field), and being taught to track by the skilled trackers in the area. When she turned six she started studying machines and, though she didn't really do well with the more complex ones like computers, she excelled with simple devices like integrated circuits. She was also at the top of her class in ship warfare tactics.
At the age of twelve she took a job as a tracker for a Drow ship looking for pirates that had raided one of their colony worlds; they had come to Hibral to hire trackers because the Hibros are rumored to be the best trackers in the area. When she located them in a hollowed out asteroid 12 lightyears away, she helped them to capture base and release their prisoners. After that she was hooked on space travel.
When the Drow released her from her contract she started signing up with other races to work as a tracker or fighter as a mercenary. Eventually, this lead her to Trade Station Alpha when the race she was working for needed to find a source of Deuterium fuel for their people. When they released her, after they signed a trade agreement with a Harvester alliance at Jupiter, she went in search of a new job and met Julian, who needed to find a certain dangerous criminal so he could catch him for the bounty. After the man was located on Venus, having used plastic surgery to hide and get a job as a miner, Julius asked her to stay on with his crew. She agreed.

Julius Briggs

Name: Julius Briggs
Age: 25
Species: Human
Appearance:
Typical Spacer. Cheap, outdated battle armor (without a helmet because it would hide his face), Close cut beard (about a day of growth, but trimmed that way), Black hair, brown eyes. Carries a rail pistol on his side, in case it's needed.
Personality: Self absorbed, he sees himself as a ladies man, even when the ladies don't. He's got the attitude of a rockstar.
Skills overview: Brawling, shooting, Cunning speaker
Position on crew: Captain
Years on crew: 6, since he bought the ship
Bio: He grew up on Earth, his dad a mechanic at the local Spaceport, his mom a nurse. When he was 16 he got a job at the spaceport loading cargo. When he learned that one of the ships was hauling more than just the standard cargo, he covered for them and they offered him a job.
He saved up his money and one day, when the smuggler ship was docked at Trade Station Alpha, he met a salvager in a bar. The man had just found a K-3 Dwarf with a leaky reactor in the asteroid belt, its crew having long ago died from radiation poisoning. He bought it with the large amount of money he had stowed away and, after quitting the crew of the smuggling ship, fixed it up. When he was finished making repairs he went looking for a crew.
At least, that's the story he tells everyone. In reality he bought it for 800k credits, almost his entire savings from being a smuggler, from the last captain who wanted to retire in another system. His command style drove away most of the crew, except for the pilot.
They ran missions throughout the nearby space, smuggling or mining at first, but eventually expanding their skill set to include anything that could turn a profit.

My species sheets:

Hibros

Name: Hibros
Homeworld: Hibral
Similar non-intelligent lifeforms: cats/dogs
Appearance: 5'10" - 6'6", Mammalian, fur, tail
Biological traits: Retractable claws, fangs
Cultural traits: Hunters, they believe that a victory won with borrowed strength, including that of technology and other people, is meaningless. Because of this, they utilize weapons that work off of the strength of the user, such as laser bows that must be drawn or pumped to store power for the shot.
Females actively try to attract males more than in humans, and may have more than a dozen children in their lifetimes.
Specialization: Security for those who care about honor. They are also good at tracking and stalking their prey, making them excellent bounty hunters.
Tech: Specializes in converting muscle strength into electricity. They are also good at disabling enemy vessels so that they can fight the crew one-on-one.

[Deserted]

Species Profile: Mandrake

Name: Mandrake (Given name, not what the species calls itself.)

Homeworld: 27 Centaurus Db “Avalon Centaurus”

Similar non-intelligent lifeforms: Tuber/Ginger/Tree/Grass

Appearance: A root-like body, they can range in form, size and number of limbs and sensory organs. Size is limited by lifespan and diet. There seems to be no lifecycle to a Mandrake, their lifespan is only limited by disease or accident.

Biological Traits: Photosynthesis, non-localization of life functions makes a Mandrake difficult to terminate. With the reproduction of budding, there is also a generational knowledge that is passed down. Likewise, the species seem to have an instinctual eugenics, thus producing resilient offspring. Because they belong to the plant kingdom, high salinity, heavy metals, and fungus are a serious threat to them.

Cultural Traits: Mandrakes are sedate isolationists, most of their culture involves silence, contemplation, and simply existing. Self-acceptance is big, so most mandrakes grow however their bodies form with limbs and sensory organs sprouting wherever they take root. Essentially their entire planet is mostly standing-room only, so it is not uncommon for mandrakes to have absolutely no social bubble. There is a strong generational sense, being that they have literally taken over the planet and are absorbing the decaying bodies of past generations. Likewise, they view animal lifeforms as hasty worrywarts that are more trouble than they are worth. There is a wide spectrum of religions and cultures. However, war is unheard of between Mandrakes, just like murder and theft. Ownership is a foreign concept (especially since identity is somewhat blended.) Some might consider the Mandrake life to be some sort of utopia since it lacks almost all of the major drawbacks of other societies. However, this also comes with a level of anarchy and apathy when it involves the week of their society. There is also indifference even to their own existence that can lead to compliance with death (which can also be used as a weapon by sacrificing themselves by being in proximity to danger.)

Specialization: Being isolationists, they do not really hold any form of trade, government, or planetary relations. While they do not want the presence of Sentient Animals, they don’t really do anything about their presence. Because of this, a number of species claim 27 Centaurus Db, but find themselves simply suffocated should a foothold on the planet be attempted. Conquest has been stifled, since there are so many Mandrakes with unknown technologies as well as the formidable physical characteristics of the species. Cost to reward ratio is poor. Thus, the local area species view Avalon Centaurus as a good place to vacation, but not a good place to live.

Tech: Most of the Mandrake technology specializes in production of co2, o2, environmental platforms, and long-term sustainability. However, knowledge of other technologies is mostly hidden, and seems to come out of nowhere to meet the need of any chrysis. They have many orbital platforms in the 27 Centaurus system, that mostly consists of more surface area to grow on. Likewise, they have been developing techniques to stabilize their host star to prevent nova or spectral shifting, and to prolong the duration of the star. These technologies should work, expanding the lifespan of their star from billions of years to trillions. However, they require such massive amounts of resources, that the Mandrakes can make little difference right now. The project is assumed to take about 100,000 years before the star is actually stabilized, but they are up for the task. They have almost no interest in interstellar travel or war.

Character Sheet

Name: Pipipsiwa “Pip”

Age: 11 (Adult)

Species: Mandrake

Appearance: Pip’s body is much like a carrot or potato, a tuberous growth that Pip has modified into a humanoid shape. It has grown two eyes that are entirely blue orbs, and its foliage sprouts where a human’s hair should be. However, instead of protein strands, it is half tentacle, half reed like growths that can be used as extra limbs. In order to accommodate vocal communication (instead of chemical as is the Mandrake default) Pip has crafted an orifice to meet the need as well as to ingest insects or small creatures.

Personality: Due to the sexual-cultural differences of the societies that Pip has ventured into, Pip has chosen to be identified as female, sporting some robust personality traits that seem to coincide with the female gender more so than that of the males. Contrary to most Mandrakes and Mandrake society, Pip is highly energetic, highly curious, and highly active. She is loaded with enough spunk to run a teenager ragged. She has a thirst for adventure and danger. She is an incorrigible match-maker, and keeps strange and sometimes dangerous pets. Due to the extreme difference in species, Pip is ill-equipped for certain social identifications. Inter-species wars and enemies and ownership seem to make no sense and have proven very difficult to distinguish.

Skills Overview: Pip has lived the length of her life on this exact ship. While she is a fantastic pilot and a decent navigator, she often fills the role of assistant when it comes down to minor technical work and repairs. Because of her astounding perception, and ability to overcome many injuries, she is often placed on landing teams. Her pay has not gone toward food or housing or or cultural stigma, and therefore she has a knack to spend her money mostly on toys, trinkets, and pets. Thus far she has found particular use of a jet-pack and a concussion blaster.

Position on crew: Pilot

Years on crew: 6

Bio

Pip began her life, as a budding growth off of her parent (Halimfalar) some 11 years ago. From the start, all of her eyes aimed toward the stars, and the strange visitors from the local cluster. Their behavior was fascinating and unlike any of the native animals on Avalon Centaurus. Shortly after separating, Pip sought to leave the 27 Centaurus system, and the Mandrakes were glad to see her go, since she could and would drone on and on day after day about pointless prattle.

It took a little time to get used to things, but eventually the heightened perception of Pip made her an ideal pilot. With a couple of modifications to the navigational system, she found that she could extend her sense of self to encompass the entirety and form of the ship with ease by using the amorphous body-image of the Mandrake physiology.

Not too many people were too crazy about hiring what seemed to be a very bizarre child to fly their ungodly expensive ship. However, miners don’t really care, and eventually she wound up on a K-3 Dwarf Mining craft. (The same craft that was eventually sold to Julius.) However, when she tried to stay on as a pilot, a more conventional candidate was chosen, and Pip was moved to the role of operations. However, after a few of their more adventuresome runs, pilots soon found the position not worth the pathetic pay. After about the 5th short lived crew-member, Julius allowed Pip to resume her original role, and he has not regretted it.