MA KIM

## SUMMARY

A legend among legends, with a death more famous than most freelancers' lives, Kim Oakley was the embodiment of the spirit of rebellion.

## HISTORY

In 2039 in the region of Alta Turre that would later become the Lower Commercial District, Kim Oakley was born. At the age of six, her misfortunes began, her family evicted from their home to make room for the new construction. Rather than being fortunate enough to relocate to the outer ring of the city, the Oakleys were pushed into the Sub-Stacks.

By 2052, both of her parents had passed away, succumbing to disease in the cramped slums. This left Kim to fend for herself, finding jobs as a courier for the amassing unified group of criminal entities.

When the LCD was captured in the 2054 raid, Kim's luck ran dry once again, the newly forming syndicates too busy with internal conflicts to pay any mind to hiring outside help. During this time, Kim did what she could to scrape together enough to eat, often taking jobs cleaning shop windows or gathering trash for removal in exchange for a few morsels of food.

Over the following years, freelancers had begun to appear within the LCD, along with the handlers to organize their efforts. In the year 2056, at the age of seventeen, Kim joined their ranks. She quickly found herself in the ledger of several handlers, not for being particularly skilled at any given task, but rather for being someone known for taking jobs others were unwilling to do.

Her tenacity, which many assumed would lead to her death, brought her steadily more notoriety as job after job was completed that other freelancers had deemed to risky to attempt. Kim's luck had finally begun to turn, gaining an increasing network of freelancers that were lined up to work alongside her.

Seemingly as quickly as good fortune had found her, it left. The terminal she had managed to assemble of scrap and used components, taking her years to save up for, was destroyed by the Hive. While she was out on a job, the power to her base of operations was overloaded through the city grid, leaving her to return home to a message reading "Use of unauthorized equipment detected." With her last avenue for fending for herself removed, the terminal being the sole method of contact through which she could arrange work, Kim was stranded once more. Feeling that she could no longer bear to be abused by the corporation that had stolen a life from her once before, she devised a plan.

Kim got to work immediately, trekking across the LCD to every freelancer hangout and handler's den she knew, detailing her plan to those who would listen in the hopes of recruiting a team. At the time, she was shrugged off as a kid with a death wish. In the modern day, following the path she travelled across the district has become a rite of initiation for emerging mercs. After assembling a team of four, including Kim herself, the time had come to act.

In the fall of 2061, Kim Oakley and three unnamed others ascended Tower 1 in a violet head-on assault. Beginning at the ground floor, they ascended level by level, destroying research labs, assembly and maintenance sites, and data vaults along the way. After making their way through sixty three levels, the group's rampage was ended by a massive explosion. Those outside the tower report that Kim's body was flung from an exterior window by the force of the blast, it being unclear if her death was caused by the explosion or impact with the street below.

In memory of the raid, a bar that occupied the space in the LCD that had previously been her home was renamed to "Ma Kim's," paying homage to her title as the "mother of chaos." Her personal sidearm was retrieved from her body, being enshrined in an alcove near her base of operations. Despite a lack of security around the alcove, the weapon has never been moved or stolen, presumably out of respect for the woman who wielded it.

## REFERENCES

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