Captain Lurker of Starsector 1

**Captain Lurker of Starsector MN-1** arrived in the Starsector in March 206 as a Freelancer with a fleet of five ships: his leading Mule *LK Gagarin's Dream*, the Cerberus *LK Blue Star*, the Wolf *LK Interstitial Breeze*, the Centurion *LK To Goddard with Apologies*, the Salvage Rig *LK Stellar Rose* and the Phaeton *LK Starflyer*.

His first encounter in the System was the pirate captain Guy Cabrakan whose greeting words shocked him. "If a spacer steals food to feed her family, her comrades, they call it piracy. If that makes me a pirate, then I'd rather be a pirate than some poor tool salutin' the phoenix." Still, Captain Lurker had already made his plans for the Sector: become rich and friends with all the factions bar the pirates. He understood their plight, now that it was shoved in his face more than ever, but knew he couldn't help them in any practical manner and that he couldn't risk being personally entangled in pirate business with all civilized space hating them and with the risk of the majority of the population of the Starsector turning against him. His ascension was the most important, and with a heavy heart he destroyed the Cerberus *P1 Runesocesius*.

After resolving Ashley Jura and Ancyra's issues and leaving through the wormhole, Lurker's fleet immediate encountered two strange sights: a fight between a smuggler fleet and a pirate one, and a massive convoy coming from Chicomoztoc and heading towards Agreus led by Independent Fleet Commander Chanthira Cruz. He decided to participate in what would become known as the Battle of Pontus Gravity Well, taking the Hound *LK Wyvern* as spoils.

After this, under the indications of Ashley, he arrived in Jangala in the Corvus System. There, he is advised by Station Commander Iskander Baird on his various options. Having a secret and "burning" Gamma AI core in his hull that was one random search from being discovered and confiscated or destroyed and seeing the meager 10,000 credits he could receive on the black market, he decided to go to the nearest system that he Tri Tachion Corporation personel and personally hand over the core. On his way there however, he found the remains of Hegemony fast picket battles and succeeded in gathering some salvage, as well as a persued selfstyled pirate warlord High Burn Salvo, whose one fleeing ship he disabled and recovered as his own, the *LK Cromo*, as well as the *LK Via Acubens* from the remains of the battle.

Arriving in Asharu however had him met Duke Kirby, who gave him an offer too good to be true: deliver 33 organs to Eventide for 35,000 credits. In hyperspace, he encountered a helpless battle against the defenders with the pirates, in which he couldn't engage without his fleet being destroyed. Heavy-hearted, he made his way to Ancyra, which he found besieged by hordes of pirates that he barely dodged, where he added weapons to his fleet, then headed to Eventide. Only once arriving there did he realize what a mistake he had made, as the money he had been promised was by no means easy. After tens of simulations, one fluke chance made that unintentionally diverting the pickets would lead him to arrive unopposed. Thus, he succeeded in finishing his contract. On the black market, he also successfully found 4 Heavy Mortar, one High Intensity Laser and two Hephaestus Assault Gun, 4 Sabot SMR and the *LK Hymir*, a pirate mule, which he bought, but left him almost destitute. On his way, he considered attacking a smuggling independent convoy, but was not willing to risk his affiliation with the Independents, so let them go.

Back in Ancyla, he found an interesting contract from Boyana Callisto to deliver goods to Culann despite Path activity. Knowing his last mission was a hair-lenght from disaster, he was reluctant to agree. The move *would* lead him in a Tri-Tech controlled system, however. His arrival was surprisingly unproblematic, but he was disappointed at the lack of prospects there. Ganymede Erdenol's presence was mildly enticing, but the fact that it pitted Lurker against the main faction was not, as he was expecting and hoping for smuggling jobs. He was especially disappointed with the lack of Tri-Tachyon missions. The star system however managed to pay for its worth, where Lurker nearly tripled his profit of 40,000 with trading good to the pirates in the system.

As the trading became unsustainable (though he was thankful for no Tri-Tachyon scans or pirate ships harrasement), he decided to bite the bullet and finish his mission to the Hegemony, which took him to the binary system Alpha Elysia. However, he miscalculated gravely - coupled with the hyperspace streams, he was exactly out of fuel at the system. Thankfully, he found his mission objective, but by no means enough fuel to return to the core worlds. He gambled going to the nearest system and failed. With no other choice, he sent out a distress call - a risky endeavour. Help came from the more unlikely of forces - a full-fledged Luddic Church armada. He paid his toll of 20,000 credits - less than half of his 50,000 profit from the Hegemony successful mission - and limped to Eos Exodus - not coincidentally the most outward of the core worlds and a Luddic Church base. However, he couldn't help himself and started trading illegal drugs - he considered he was doing them a favor, as they may help their communion with Luddic. He took them to Epiphany for a quadruple profit, reaching almost 200 thousand credits. He then moved for a dead drop delivery on behalf of Tegga Rockham in Ul Quoma system. On his return, he was accosted by a Tri-Tachyon armada, being forced to renounce the drop site. He arrived in the next system and bought enough supplies to return to the core worlds, as well as accepted a food supply offer and buying illegal goods in the Hegemony on Yma. He continued to Coatl, where he bought a Colossal MKIII, the *LK Leviathan*, again from the black market, for around 60,000 credits. He zig-zagged to Suddene to finish a special drug delivery, where he bought a Hammerhead the *LK Amon Roc*. Rounding up his credits to 400,000 in Chalchedon, a new investment was warranted, the Colossus *LC Sabrina* for only 46,000 credits and the *LK Red Dwarf* from Olinadu for around 60 thousand. A few more runs and sketchy deals on the Luddic Path black market in Chalchedon brought him to a net 600,000 beyond the scope of his own ships.

Looking at his log, he noticed that he had 4 pirate permanent contacts on them - something that he was not necessarily against. He was weary of losing the respect of the surrounding polities, though thankfully he had been rarely caught or suspected of unfair dealings against most of their holdings. Following a mission from the Independents about a derelict, he found a treasure-trove system in Epsilon Alkonomia. He managed to complete the mission and find a Legion in the system, but couldn't leave undetected, losing 26,000 credits in tithe. Still, he considered it a price more than worth it - especially since the Independents bounty alone was 30,000 itself. As he returned to civilization, he was forced to buy storage and leave the Legion *LK Firbolg* on Culann while following up on yet another pirate contact. He did fill his holds in Culann, spending all his hard-earned 600,000 credits with little suspicion from the port authorities. He successfully reached Cibola for this with a day to spare. He then took a small fuel transport to an adjacent system to Laicaille, which was fortunate for it was itself adjacent to Chalchedon, where he could unload his million credit haul. There he received the unfortunate intel that only his marines could be sold at great profit. Still, that just meant a few light-years flight to Magec to sell the guns. In a surprising move, he did sell 600 supplies, as this appeared to be the most needful place for them, deciding to stock in other parts. Neptune Daniels also proved to be a boon, buying 500 fuel for 37k credits and selling a 13k Colossus, the *LK Amphimacius*. He recovered up to 800k capital in the Thule Raider Base. With his cash secured, he considered taking some bounties - he had a decent fleet, after all. On May 26, 207 he gained the coveted Hull Restoration skill, allowing him to possibly remove vital flaws from his ships.

On September 7, he finally retrieved the Legion from Culann, but managed to nearly bankrupt himself again, going from 1,3 million to around 70k credits, though granted with many supplies and ships.

Arriving at the Corvus system abandoned station, he left the Legion *LK Firbolg*, the large tanker *LK Augeas*, the Atlas *LK Aldebaran* and the Hermes *LK Hyperspace Dreaming*.

At the end of 207, he took a contract for a derelict in the Epsilon Abraxas system for the Luddic Path and on January 12, 208 after many simulations, a ship graveyard was found beyond the star system's rings in a space cloud near the gas giant Epsilon Abraxas III. The journey was harrowing, arriving on February 12 in the vecinity of the Tyle system without fuel from the over 3000 he started with, the few gains and the hazards of the hyperspace lanes. He jumped into Canaria's gravity well the same day. Despite his misgivings on the previous contract, he took two more contracts for the Path, these two much closer to the Core Worlds. On March 30, he barely managed to gather the fuel for one of them though. He barely managed to drift into Canaria's gravity well in his return. On July 25, he arrived to the Corvus system to relieve his hold of clogging cargo and extra ships.

## Second Legion Era

On October 20, 208 he found and recovered the Enforcer *LK Hylas* next to the Al Gebbar jump point while on his way to buy a second Legion. With over 500,000 credits in hand from trading, he bought in Tartessus the Legion *LK Forget Not Earth* and on November 8 he retrieved both Legions for a more... aggresive negotiation. On November 15, he made back almost 400,000 credits in arms dealings in Mimir Siphon Platform.

## Ship captains

As Lurker mostly avoided fights until he could buy a strong fleet, he did not hire any professional captain in the first year of activity in the Starsector. Another cited reason was to not pay their wages that amount in some fleets to that of an entire contingent of hundreds of crew.