Niles Oron

**Niles Oron** is a kugraw mercenary, and the captain of the *Manta*. Despite initially appearing to be gruff and uncaring, Niles maintains a loyalty to those under his protection beyond what others would expect of him.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Not much is known about Niles' early life. The most the kugraw has been willing to talk about it is in reference to how he and Quix met.

### **Mercenary Work**

Niles began his career as a mercenary in his early twenties. Accepting any and all jobs that were offered in order to quickly make a name for himself, he ended up agreeing to an assignment where he and a group of other mercenaries would eliminate an exodeist that was being targeted as an undesirable.

During the following hunt for the exodeist which took place on a backwater space-station out in the Edge, Niles and the others had to keep track of their target while simultaneously evading the many traps and defenses that she left behind for them.

After two days of playing cat-and-mouse, Niles finally cornered the exodeist. He hesitated to kill her, however, instead asking the contractor of the mission why she was being assassinated. The contractor revealed that she was a political enemy of more traditionally-minded individuals who believed her progressive ideals to be dangerous. Upon realizing the truth, Niles turned on them and killed both the contractor and one other mercenary before the last two retaliated and nearly beat him to death. They were only stopped by the exodeist who killed one with Niles' fallen weapon, causing the last survivor to flee. Instead of killing Niles, she offered him her hand and the two were friends from that point on.

### **The Mark of Eden**

#### **Joining the Team**

Niles was contacted by Note through the shadow-market after the Cell's attack on Jantii. Agreeing to meet with her and her companions at a restaurant on the Mercantile, he arrived at the meeting point first and awaited them. When they did eventually show up, he was surprised to find himself face-to-face with an undocumented alien. He eventually agreed to protect them from the Cell for 60,000 credits. Afterwards, Niles then led them to Quix, given Note's request for Val to learn more about why he was experiencing dreams and hallucinations.

Studying Val intensely, Quix theorized that he was undergoing 'Mnemonic Synthesis', a concept where two different sets of memories, their previous set and their current set, were merging and trying to join messily. With no clear answers relating to his or Note's origins, Val declared that he would venture into the Umbra to find them. Niles begrudgingly agreed to join, simply because he'd already told them he would protect them and did not want to back out of the job, though he did tell them that they would need a Vaulter if they were going to explore Architect ruins.

Niles and Val met with a prospective Vaulter at the Aris Baths, though it turned out to be a team of two consisting of a nox and vett'iri who introduced themselves as Isaak and Chellor respectively. Realizing that Val wanted their help to break into an Architect ruin in the Umbra, the pair was keen to turn down the job, but Isaak decided to stay upon learning that Val was being hunted by the Cell, vowing to protect the boy from the gene-splicers for personal reasons. Niles convinced Chellor to join as well by appealing to his desire to create a better name for his species.

Meeting back with the others at one of the Mercantile's dockyards, Niles introduced the crew to his ship, the *Manta*. Once everyone was board, the crew set out to find the temple hidden in the Umbra.

During the last night of their journey, Niles joined Note in the cockpit and opted to sleep in his normal spot in the pilot's chair, offering to help teach her how to fly when they had more time. They had a brief discussion about the history of the Hegemony and Empire. Note asked about the arrangement of strings of lights on the cockpit's ceiling, and Niles revealed that they were to imitate the constellations of the Gamma Plane, mimicking a ceiling poster of glow in the dark stars he'd had as a kid.

#### **The Dead Moon**

Upon arrival at the dead moon in the Umbra, Niles and the others discovered evidence of an Imperial camp outside the temple. The *Manta* crew then descended into the temple and found the chamber where Val's Chrysalis had been. In the same room, an AI designated as Ouroboros appeared and revealed the truth that Val and Note came from the Architect civilization, and were in fact Architects themselves.

A creature living on the moon attacked them, and Niles ran with Ten and Val into the temple's archives. There, all three witnessed a recorded warning from the original Valentine before Val succumbed to a seizure and had to be carried out to safety, all of them escaping with the others through the facility's Gateway, but not before Ten was nearly eaten by the beast, only saved by a well-placed shot from Niles' plasma revolver.

#### **The Cell's Attack**

When the *Manta* eventually emerged from null space, everyone witnessed the Cell attacking the Mercantile. After they crash-landed inside the station, Niles and Isaak stayed behind with the crash to buy the others time to escape and hide Val. After some time, the Cell retreated. Both were confused as to why until the others returned and they realized that the Cell had successfully captured Val.

Initially thinking it hopeless, Niles rejected Note's suggestion to chase after Val, claiming he did not want anyone to die needlessly. But after seeing her rally everyone together, claiming that they were all fighters in their own right and encouraging them to fight to save Val, Niles was convinced, boarding the *Manta* with everyone else and chasing after the Cell.

#### **Eden**

After the *Manta* followed the Cell flagship through the energy cloud surrounding the Rings of Eden, the ship was shot down. Niles and the others were forced to pursue the Cell and Val on foot before Val was thrown through a Tear. On the other side, he and the others realized that the Rings were merely a Tear-Gate connecting to the true Eden where the Sensus had been lying dormant for millennia.

While Ten, Note, and Quix attended to an unconscious and dying Val, Niles and Isaak fought against the Sensus' wraiths as the Cell were slaughtered. The Sensus taunted them, calling Niles "the betrayer". It battered him aside, leaving him unable to help as it descended on Isaak in its attempt to convert him into a wraith. A yellow-speckled Cell cleaved through its leg at the last moment, allowing Niles a moment to throw his gun to Isaak who proceeded to kill the wraith.

When Val woke up, the *Manta* crew traveled back through the Tear where Val and Note closed the Gate and sealed the Sensus back in Eden. The ensuing explosion of null energy from the collapsing Tear damaged the *Manta* and stranded everyone in space for several weeks before they were picked up by a Hegemony patrol and arrested.

## **Trivia**

• Niles is named after Niles Crane, the brother of the titular character on the show "Frasier".