Hanai Akatora

One of Blackstar's more prominent captains, a deeply traumatized Ayr woman from one of the empire's most lowest houses who's been forced into a life of piracy by her father to make ends meet. Hanai rose to prominence among the pirate community of the Renegade Quadrant by being one of the only people who ventured into what is known as 'the Pit' (Artisynth space) and survived.

## History

Born on Ayr into poverty in a house among the lowest in the entire empire, Hanai's family had to be supported by her uncle, a wealthy navigator in the service of House Shayus. However, on a voyage to the Renegade Quadrant, her uncle disappeared and never returned, cutting her family off from one of their big sources of revenue. As a result, her desperate father forced her out of the house to do anything to try and bring some money home. Soon enough, she found herself in the Blackstar group of pirates, harassing Ayr merchant ships and stealing their cargo while bringing portions of it to her house. After rising to the rank of captain and having her own ship, she could practically traverse wherever in the Renegade Quadrant she wanted, which was perfect for what she really wanted to do.She had another goal in mind other than simply piracy and advancing her house and father: she wanted to find out what happened to her uncle.

Practically the entire quadrant had been populated by shattered civilizations, pirate colonies, and all other sorts of life, yet no signs of her uncle were anywhere. Still she kept up hope that she'd find a trace of him someday. Her uncle owned a large merchant ship containing all sorts of valuables, artifacts, and large quantities of currency. Surely any discovery of it wouldn't go unnoticed. Yet after years of searching and finding nothing, she deduced that he could be in the only place nobody in the quadrant was brave enough to enter: The Pit. Though she and her crew knew the dangers of the pit, she ventured inside anyway. Not even hours passed when her ship started picking up rather faint signals coming from another vessel nearby. After receiving confirmation that they came from an Ayr merchant vessel, she immediately ordered her ship to pursue it, leading them to a planet hidden in the pit. But before they were even able to land on it, their ship was locked onto by multiple vectors that completely surrounded them. The Artisynth had found them trespassing, and they didn't like that at all.

Blowing her ship right out of the sky, forcing it to crash on Karbala's surface, the Artisynth rounded up any survivors and systematically killed them one by one in their grand mosque, but they had something special planned for her since she was an Ayr, and a captain. The Ayatollahs had locked her up in a basement underneath the mosque there they tortured and beat her without mercy. Beaten and broken, the once cold yet upbeat pirate captain was now a traumatized wreck. Fortunately, during Frosty's visit to Karbala, he discovered her in her cell and had freed her, even helping her find a ship to escape with. This wouldn't be the end of her troubles however, as she was found by the Transsentience Cult shortly after her escape. Taking her captive, they replaced her limbs with cybernetic ones. But before they got to work on her brain, the cult was attacked by the Divinity Creed, distracting the cult and allowing her to escape again.

Finally, after having escaped death twice, she immediately went to Rook's Wharf to tell the high captain of Blackstar what happened. She hoped she could convince her boss to mount an offensive against the Artisynth as revenge for torturing her, killing her crew, and possibly her uncle as well, but was instead told to settle down and relax. Meanwhile, the Artisynth did not forget about her, and a 4-man Quds team was sent to silence her before she could say anything about Karbala and it's whereabouts. This mission ultimately ended in failure as she managed to overpower and kill one of them, while the other three were forced to retreat once their cover was blown. Finally evading death a third time, she now spends her time holed up in her cabin, only coming out when she wants to drown herself in liquor in order to forget all that had happened to her.

## Gallery.

The set of customized armor she wore during captain of one of Blackstar's many pirate vessels.