Senior Arbitrator Leukala Mhal

Senior Arbitrator Leukala Mhal, Marshal-Commodore of the
Calixia Castilis Precinct Fleet, is the Calixis fleet’s commander,
its figurehead, and its lucky charm. She and her four sisters
were void-born aboard an armed trader pressed into service
for the tense and bloody Second Sepherine Interdiction.
When a miscalculated trajectory resulted in the ship arriving
ten days overdue at the Arbites blockade, the shipmaster was
fined not only part of his pay, but also some of his cargo,
ship’s supplies, and crew. Although the youngest of the five,
Leukala volunteered herself to the cull to spare her sisters the
pain of separation, and joined the frightened throng shuffling
through the transit locks off the ship that had been her world
for thirteen years. Most of the tithed were put straight into
menial positions, but any young enough to be potential
recruits were sidelined for aptitude testing. Leukala, made
fierce by desperation, passed the tests with honors and when
the Interdiction ended and the Arbites squadron moved on,
she was riding in the garrison decks in the uniform of a trainee.
From there the records show little about Arbitor Mhal
apart from her presence aboard a series of Precinct ships, until
the bloody guerilla war with xenophile raiders through the
Drusus Marches. The traitors’ strange weapons and fearsome
boarding actions took a heavy toll on the Arbites crews and
many younger Arbitrators found themselves yanked up the
promotion ladder. Mhal rose to the challenge, commanding
ships’ troops and crew sections with an equal measure of
resourcefulness, charisma and quickly demonstrating an
intuitive grasp of shipboard combat. It took three years for the
Arbites and the Navy to turn the tables, hunt out the raiders,
and exterminate them. At the final triumph aboard the Arbites
flagship Radiant Decree, the raider chieftain was dragged the
length of the ship in chains and ceremonially flushed from the
airlock with his hands nailed to the small of his back and his
writ of execution branded into his chest. Mhal was there to
watch as Provost-Commander of the Radiant Decree’s fighting
Arbitrator contingent. Within five years she was commanding
a ship of her own, a squadron within ten more years, and
when the newly-appointed Lord Marshal Goreman needed a
commander he trusted to efficiently run his very small, and
thin-spread fleet there was only one name he had in mind.
Marshal-Commodore Mhal has never lost the unflagging
drive that propelled her through the recruitment trials,
and works herself and her fleet calmly and efficiently, but
relentlessly. She hates inactivity, always restless for the next
mission, the next challenge, the next task—she even walks
with an odd forward-leaning gait, as though desperate to
arrive where she’s going that few seconds sooner. The Radiant
Decree is now her flagship, but when that ship is in port for
any lengthy refits she will transfer her flag to one of the
other two ships so as to be back out and in active command
again. Her temperament is an excellent match for the Lord
Marshal’s, and just the right one for the small and overworked
fleet she commands. For her the relentless work is a given,
rather than a burden, and her own unflappable demeanour
and endless energy are an inspiration to her command. Her
personal charisma and strong leadership have turned the usual
prejudices about void-born inside out and “The Lady” has
become something of an iconic figure to her fleet. Portraits
of her adorn many halls and quarters, and fleet folklore holds
that any ship with her aboard will always prevail and return
to dock safely. She has never set foot on a planet’s surface in
her life, and has no plans ever to do so.
Leukala Mhal is a startlingly tall woman of slender
build, with the trademark pallor of the void-born. She has
long, haughty features and blue-grey eyes with prominent
epicanthic folds. Her hair has been a glossy gunmetal-grey
all her life; more recently it has turned the lighter grey of
advancing age. She wears it in a thick, braided cable across her
shoulders. She usually dresses in a formal Arbitor-General’s
cloak over neat shipboard fatigues, the cloak pinned carefully
so it won’t billow or tangle in low gravity.