Beta

One of Mordecai's Four Horsemen (Pestilence), Beta was a doppelganger of Yanim Terrika, revealed to have arrived from an alternate universe with the help of Dwan Theidrum. Due to differences in the timeline of her home universe which would have resulted in her death at the Battle of Zeruel, as well as unresolved trauma from her experiences aboard the Archius XI, Beta suffered a mental breakdown which permanently altered her personality. She gradually descended from a rogue to a true serial killer and mass murderer, before eventually meeting her demise at Dwan's hands during the Starvis Crisis.

## Origin

Beta's past was nearly identical to Yanim's, until she took part in the Battle of Zeruel. There, due to an argument between the original crew of the Terrika-Belladonna Company and the mercenary leaders of the Boome Marines and the Death Vigil, she was unable to secure an escape from the planet's surface as Harken Saw prepared to destroy it. When the crew began to turn on itself, Beta murdered Gataska Vor'Pangn, the Belladonna's medic, in a fit of rage.

At the same time, Dwan was watching these events in an effort to better understand what had happened to his former friend in the alpha universe. When events began to deviate from the original timeline, Dwan soon found himself in the HarkArk Adeptor that Beta tried to use as a getaway vehicle. Beta soon chose to die by engaging an aerial fighter craft, but was miraculously blown through the portal Dwan was creating to allow his own escape, taking both to safety.

## Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway

Having deceived Dwan into believing that she would be a messenger and benefactor to the "alpha universe" Yanim and help to undue some of the trauma he had unintentionally inflicted upon his onetime comrade, Beta infiltrated the alpha universe and immediately set to work stalking Yanim with the intent to kill and replace her. Initially, she used the alias "Damya Sidikan," taken from a similar-looking Kanad Collective State Security agent she had once encountered while serving aboard the Archius.

Beta intended to gain a new lease on life which "erased" some of the past injustices she had suffered, an outcome which was preferable to returning to her own universe, where she would be penniless and, she assumed, forgotten by the few friends she had made whom hadn't been killed at the Battle of Zeruel.

Over time, however, Beta's mental health sharply deteriorated. Like Yanim, she was motivated to exact a lethal revenge on those she felt were responsible for her anguish. However, due to the lack of any connection between her new surroundings and the events which traumatized her in her own universe, Beta could never properly attain such a revenge. Additionally, with the awareness of the multiverse, Beta concluded that life was neither precious nor irreplaceable. She began to view the very concept of existence as an engine of suffering without a purpose, much like herself, or as she would eventually self-identify, a pestilence.

In this deranged mindset, Beta developed a love for the act of killing, simultaneously regarding it as defiance against the machinations of the universe by releasing others from the suffering it creates, as well as a sadistic source of validation through the trauma she inflicted on others. Her methods escalated from simple shooting sprees to grotesque, mutilation attacks. After joining the Death Vigil to create a stream of income from her deadly pursuits, she quickly climbed the ranks due to her sociopathic behavior. Running into the Muramasa crew on Rigel, Beta would eventually succeed in killing Yanim, although by this point she had abandoned the idea of assuming her identity.

During the above confrontation, Beta escaped with Yanim's YSX implant computer package, granting her both knowledge of Starvis's Archives, as well as the incomplete design of an experimental subcompact mech Yanim had drafted in order to prevent Dwan from interfering in her life. Until moments before her death, Yanim had mistakenly believed that Dwan was a "monster" who had viewed the deaths of their friends aboard the Archius as mere entertainment. Beta successfully finished the design, known as Velkratkammik, or "The Infernal Machine," by using her own unique familiarity with Dwan's abilities to finish an onboard spacial distortion generator. The end result was the Zhukamangana, "Eater of Nonsense," a system which could disrupt Dwan's ability to create portals.

She would eventually face the crew of the Muramasa during the Starvis Crisis as one of the Death Vigil's Four Horsemen. There, she was rendered mostly ineffectual by her foe's tactics, but she did succeed in killing Sting. Dwan, having learned of Beta's true nature and deeds, joined the Muramasa Crew specifically to confront her, which eventually occurred onboard the Death Vigil's Starving Buzzard. Shortly before their battle, Beta confided to Dwan that she hoped Starvis would destroy all life in the galaxy, as it would both bring an end to all suffering, as well as unleash a wave of terror which would render the dying masses as existentially hopeless as herself, in effect, reuniting her with the world she had become estranged from.

Beta was killed when Dwan delivered a fatal attack to the torso using a Plasma Saber, and then decapitated her with the same weapon. She left very little behind; the Infernal Machine had been destroyed during the battle on Starvis, and her plasma saber was given to Specter, the pilot of the Starving Buzzard. Her headless body was buried in a shallow grave on a remote planet.