Rhododendron Pike

Rho Pike is an orphan living on Mars. Her parents died about eight years ago in an accident that also left her with prosthetic limbs, and with no living relatives on Mars. Martian officials wanted to ship her off to some of her father's family living back on Earth, but Rho overheard them talking and took her chance to run away--Mars is the only home she's ever known, and she's always been proud of being a native Martian, so the last thing she wants is to be sent to Earth. Especially to be with family members she's never met.

## Skills and Abilities

Rho has always had a knack for technology and machines, and so to make the money she needs to survive on Mars, she's taken to finding scrapped, damaged, or lost robots, repairing them or modding them, and selling them to anyone who might be interested in cheap and/or unique machinery. She's largely self taught, so she doesn't know a lot of stuff that other roboticists would consider fundamentals, but she also doesn't have preconceived notions about what can and can't be done, so she can come up with some fairly clever--albeit jury-rigged--concepts. She's usually tinkering on at least a few robots or other gadgets.

She's also had to develop some pretty advanced survival--and it must be said, criminal--skills to survive. She's good at avoiding capture, sneaking and breaking in to places she shouldn't be, and has developed a pretty large network of contacts on the margins of society. Not exactly friends and family for the most part, but people she can rely on for information and to buy and sell to. Not always at particularly fair prices, on either side, however.

On the other hand, she hasn't attended school since the accident that killed her parents and left her with her prosthetic limbs. She reads and learns what she can when and where she can, but she has fairly large and conspicuous gaps in her knowledge that can surprise people, especially given how smart she is.

## Relations

While Rho makes her way largely on her own through salvaging scraps and selling things she finds and repairs, she's had some help along the way. She met an older girl named Polly early on after running away who showed her the ropes about how to stay off the grid, and where to buy smuggled goods so she doesn't have to show up to claim her rationed allotment and risk being noticed. She also won the fond regards of an army quartermaster named Toby Gunn who helps smuggle food to the black market on Mars, and started giving her discounts on the stuff. Toby is a bachelor who can barely take care of himself, so the thought of actually adopting her never even crossed his mind (and frankly, Rho would be a bit dubious of the arrangement even if he offered), but he nonetheless acts as a father--or at least older brother--figure for her in some ways.

One relative on Earth--Azalea Pike--has taken a special interest in finding and adopting Rho despite Rho's best efforts to disappear entirely until she's old enough to be legally free to determine her own life. Her reasons are not clear to Rho, and they haven't spoken directly, but Rho has come to think of her as something of a distant nemesis because of her efforts.

She is not a member of any official movements, but she has sympathies toward the Martian Separatist movement, and a general dislike for the US military that occupies Mars--not just because they're generally the ones whose notice she needs to avoid to stay on Mars, but that's certainly not helping their case.