The Mystery Cat - A Sci-Fi Adventure [OOC] (CLOSED)

[Ularn]

THE MYSTERY CAT
IC THREAD

Image Credit

In the mid-24th century, mankind has slipped the bonds of its homeworld and begun to blossom among the stars. Over a score of systems have been colonised and settled in relative peace as humanity races to leave behind an overpopulated, polluted, war and poverty stricken Earth.
But just because colonisation has been peaceful does not mean there have been no struggles. Colonies compete with each other commercially. Every system has something the others want, or that it's people want, even if their governments don't. War has been replaced by smuggling and piracy, with plenty of money to be made for those with a ship willing to run the gambit with the authorities and deliver precious cargoes to the people who will pay dearly for them.
The MR-656 MacAvity is such a ship, and it's crew are such people. In 2347, MacAvity's captain receives an invitation from a mysterious source, with the promise of a lucrative business proposition.

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So the plan is for the setting to be your fairly typical pulp-science-fiction-space-opera-type-thing. Set a few centuries from now where mankind has colonised the stars and now inhabits a few-dozen systems, you get to play as the ragtag bunch of misfits aboard a small merchant ship, the MacAvity, as they travel around known space making money as best they can through means both legal and otherwise. Basically, think Firefly with a bit more of an original Star Wars aesthetic and you won't be far off.
The RP will be pretty-much free-form. As GM I won't have a character myself and will control only the NPCs and concentrate on creating a rich and vibrant setting. The crew of the MacAvity, including her captain, will be played entirely by the players. There will be a plot but for the most part you can follow it or ignore it as you like. Players are welcome to write their own side plots as well and come up with their own details about the setting like planets and such. I'm hoping that over the course of the RP we'll get a really rich and developed setting going.
Standards-wise, I'm hoping we can get a good team of intermediate level players and upwards with everyone getting a post in at least once a week or so, keeping the thread active but not "I stepped out for a smoke and suddenly there's nine new pages of IC!" constant posting kind of active.
Welcome aboard!

THE MACAVITY

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Image Credit

Formally MR-656, the MacAvity started out life in 2304 as an Otter class repair vessel servicing the automated mining craft operating in Sol System's asteroid belt. Her job was to tour the belt with a crew of mechanics and a hold full of spare parts to fix those ships which had become inoperable through wear and tear.
The Otter class was purpose-built for the role; just under 100m long with quadruple fusion drives to reach stricken ships quickly and a hangar and machine shop accessible through hatches on the port and starboard sides. A tractor beam assembly just forward of the hatches can draw smaller objects (like the mining ships) into the hangar. Because their task often saw them underway for extended periods of time, a secondary hold just aft of the hangar provided storage for food and water while the crew quarters to the fore were reasonably comfortable for the ship's limited size, with a galley as well as six twin cabins.
By 2318 need for servicing ships diminished as manufacturing processes improved and MR-656 was auctioned off like many of her sister ships. Their solid speed and cargo capacity compared to their small size made them popular with would-be merchant captains looking to find a way into space borne industry. The same qualities also made them popular with smugglers.
Two more decades followed of travelling the galaxy for reasons both legal and illegal, changing hands and sometimes even its name. At some point, MR-656 acquired seven dual laser turrets, obstensibly for point defence against meteorites and deterring pirates but also potentially powerful weapons. Finally, the vessel came into the possession of its current crew and name, as the MacAvity.

SETTING

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The year is 2347. After mankind broke the boundaries of its home system at the tail end of the 21st century, humans have spent the better part of the last quarter millennium spreading out across the stars. Though habitable worlds have been few and far between, spaceborne colonies have flourished and the first worlds to have undergone terraforming are now beginning to bear fruit.

The latter part of the 21st century saw mankind adopt space exploration on a large scale, although by this time the world's governments had more or less abandoned space travel themselves and so the bulk of exploration was shouldered by the private sector. The first colonies were established within the Solar System from around 2050 onwards.

RISE OF THE SUPERSTATES
The latter half of the 21st century saw the various nations of Earth coalesce into larger superstates. The first of these was the European Union, which had been slowly edging towards such a state since its formation. By the start of the 22nd century, the only significant European states not formally amalgamated into the EU were Norway and Switzerland, both of which maintained such close relationships with the union as to be almost functionally indistinguishable from it.
At around the same time the United States of America was undergoing significant economic decline due significantly to its sluggishness to adopt alternatives to fossil fuels in the early part of the 21stcentury. At the same time it's neighbour Mexico was seeing an economic boom as the USA's inability to continue funding the drug war allowed the nation to stabilise. With over 60% of the population of the southern USA identifying as Hispanic, and amid rising discontent at the non-representative American government, referenda conducted across many of the southern and Mexican border states led to their secession from the union to join the new Mexican Federation. Without the southern states, the remnant USA became increasingly reliant on economic support from Canada and Mexico, entering into a series of increasingly stricter trade agreements until all three states eventually united as the North American Federation in 2135.

This section will be developed a bit more, but for now you can generally get a feel for the history from reading the rest of the spoilers

SPACEFLIGHT

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The secret to faster than light space travel was discovered in the 2090s, with the first operational jumpgate being completed in 2098. Constructed as ring-shaped space stations several hundred metres in diameter, jumpgates open wormholes to other systems, allowing instantaneous travel between star systems. The coordinates for a jump have to be carefully calculated, however, as the tiniest error may deposit a ship in the middle of a star rather than safely on the edge of the system.
Within systems themselves there are several options for slower than light travel, ranging from the simple but ancient and often costly rockets up to the ultra high-tech but slow to accelerate ion drives, but the most popular since even before the advent of the jumpgate is the fusion drive. Although requiring significant stores of hydrogen isotopes, the a fusion drive still achieves a better thrust-weight ratio than conventional rockets and a far higher acceleration than could be achieved by an ion drive. While there have been some experiments conducted with reactionless drives, none have yet proved practical.
As for getting into orbit from a planet's surface, the old methods of strapping cargo to a rocket for surface to orbit flight have been dismissed as too expensive. On all but the lowest gravity worlds, space elevators deliver supplies and personnel between the surface and orbit.

ARTIFICIAL GRAVITY
The technology to manipulate gravity gravity was discovered during the 22nd century and now appears on almost all spaceships and habitats. Beside keeping a crew's feet on the floor and helping to maintain bone and muscle density while off-planet, secondary applications of the technology include tractor beams and inertial dampeners allowing spacecraft to achieve impossible accelerations without turning their crews to jelly.
As yet there remains no way to increase the gravity of a whole planet, meaning that people from low gravity worlds tend to lack the necessary bone and muscle strength to survive on higher gravity worlds. Scientists have also been trying to repurpose the artificial gravity generator to develop a reactionless drive to power starships but so far no energy efficient means of doing so has yet been discovered.

MEDICINE
Medical science has come on leaps and bounds in the past few centuries. Artificial organs and prosthetics have been perfected to the point that almost any body part can be replaced as it wears out or succumbs to sickness. The average human can now expect to live to at least 150 years old, with those living in the Belt and more established colonies living longest. At this point, most of the major causes of death come from brain related causes, as this is the one organ doctors are still unable to synthesise.

WEAPONS
Almost all small arms available in the 24th century are railguns, using an electromagnetic field to accelerate projectiles wrapped in a ferrous sabot at high speeds. On starships and habitats, most operators will dial down the power settings on their weapons so as not to risk damaging the hull, meaning that body armour can be an extremely effective defence against small arms during boarding actions.
Although there are very few warships in operation in the galaxy, the weapons they mount are formidable. With sufficient power supply behind them and no atmosphere to diffract the beam, laser weapons become practical and devastating. It is also not uncommon to see civilian ships mounting smaller laser cannons to defend against space debris, although these could potentially be repurposed as weapons.

With mankind scattered across the galaxy, a state of peaceful equilibrium has finally been reached. While much of Earth itself remains in a turmoil of overpopulation and economic decline, those who emigrated to space rarely took their conflicts with them. With most colonies still busy about the task of establishing themselves, few have the infrastructure necessary to mount war on an interplanetary scale.

EARTH
Mankind's homeworld remains in much the same state as it has for most of its existence. Although many of the countries that once existed have now amalgamated into a dozen or so super states, war and famine remain very real problems for much of the overpopulated planet.
With many of its natural resources exhausted, the people of Earth looked to space for the materials they needed but found themselves unable to keep pace with the developing colonies out in the asteroid belt. Economic decline ensued and any Earthlings who could afford to generally emigrated to find better prospects in space, resulting in a brain-drain which only exacerbated the rising poverty back home.
Although people on Earth generally enjoy a safer and higher standard of living than their ancestors of the 21st century did, they still have a lower life expectancy and experience much greater hardship than people in the colonies. Colonists themselves tend to regard Earth with a romantic fondness while at the same time treating Earthlings themselves as backwards and even uncivilised.

BELT COALITION
Mars was the first colony to be established away from Earth. The second was on Ganymede and the third on Titan. Two centuries of terraforming have rendered all three of them just as habitable as Earth - more so, given the relative absense of pollution compared to their mother planet. The proximity of Jupiter and Mars to the asteroid belt made them much cheaper destinations for mining ships. Saturn, meanwhile, had a ready supply of exploitable resources in its rings and the spaceborne industry of all three colonies exploded, swiftly out producing what could be made on Earth.
To solidify their holds on the resources of Sol System, the leaderships of the three colonies signed various trade agreements with each other over the decades, eventually solidifying a semi-formal alliance that became known as the Belt Coalition. While Earth, with its developed infrastructure and education systems, initially maintained the edge in quality over the Coalition for many years, they were simply unable to keep up with the sheer volume of production that closer proximity to the belt afforded the colonies. As the balance of industry gradually shifted in favour of the belt, Earth's wealthy educated elite began emigrating outwards, further bolstering development in the colonies.
Today the Belt Coalition is regarded as the pinnacle of mankind's development. There is little in the way of formal government on any of the belt worlds. Instead, citizens live in what is (depending on who you ask) either a benign dictatorship or capitalist anarchy controlled by various corporations held in check by an elected judiciary. As a result, the Belt Coalition is often colloquially referred to as 'BeltCo'. The lower gravities of the belt worlds mean that humans raised there tend to be taller than their peers with a lower bone density and weaker cardiovascular system. They struggle to survive on Earth and higher gravity worlds without significant prior conditioning.

OUTER COLONIES
Since the invention of the jumpgate, mankind has expanded out across several dozen systems. Although only a handful of those systems had planets readily suitable for human habitation, terraforming operations have made life on at least a few planets possible, if not necessarily comfortable, with others to follow in the coming decades. Nevertheless, life aboard the many sprawling spaceborne habitats is still the norm for the majority of colonists.
Like the Belt, most colonies were started as private endeavours and owe their allegiance to no state or country back on Earth. Most are independent from each other and the only interplanetary alliances that exist tend to remain confined to a single system. Their cultures, methods of government and standards of living are almost more various than on Earth itself, with planets been ruled by total democracy all the way up to absolute monarchy.
While political turmoil and international conflict is still a fact of life on Earth, most colonists left their differences behind when they departed their homeworld. Besides, the resources necessary to mount an interstellar war against another system are so great as to be prohibitive. As a result, no two colonies in history have ever embarked on a serious war. Instead, conflict is conducted by undermining neighbouring systems commercially through more subversive means; privateers to attack their trade, smugglers to bypass the tariffs many systems place on foreign trade to protect domestic production, and the like. Such efforts can be lucrative for those willing to attempt them.

CURRENCY
While the US Dollar remains the most popular of several currencies on Earth and plenty of systems have their own currencies or company scrips, the most commonly used and stable currency in use is the Belt Credit, backed by the Bank of Mars and tied to the price of iron.

ASTEROID MINING
It used to be that the major drawback of building anything in space was the cost of getting the raw materials into orbit from the surface of the planet where they were mined. By the 24th century, this problem was non-existent as nearly all spaceborne construction, be it habitats, starships or anything else, was built in space from resources drawn from space, with the majority of raw materials being drawn from a system's asteroids.

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The mining process is almost entirely automated. First, tens of thousands of tiny, prospector craft drifting among the Belt scour it for asteroids containing useful minerals and mark them for extraction. This is accomplished by a fleet of a few thousand larger craft, one of which attaches to a tagged asteroid and uses its engines to adjust its orbit slightly, altering its flight path to eventually bring it into the orbit of Earth, Mars or whichever planet the probe originated from. Along the way the ship will begin processing the asteroid, separating the useful ores and discarding everything else as reaction mass to speed up or slow down its journey home. The refining process may take years but so will the trip, and by the time the mining ship arrives in at its destination the probe will have stripped the asteroid of nearly all its useful minerals, which can be deposited in the orbital foundries. The mining ship will then be refuelled and packed up aboard a tug ship with several dozen of its fellows, ready to be ferried back out to the belt to start the process anew.
Although time-consuming, the whole process is very cheap and the shear volume of mining ships typically operating in a given system ensures a constant stream of raw materials. By the 24th century, new spaceships are being built in orbit for far less than it would cost to build an equivalently sized sea vessel on the surface.
Historically, some powers have attempted to destabilise a rival by destroying their mining ships. While this might occasionally be an effective means of knocking out a small mining company, the shear volume of such ships, combined with their ease of construction, makes it an ineffective method of trying to disrupt an entire system's economy.

SMUGGLING
Every system tries to protect its own commerce. One of the ways this is done is by placing significant tariffs on imported goods so that the populace will buy local. In such a climate, smugglers can make a great deal of money from bringing goods into a system in secret, bypassing customs and their expensive tariffs. At the same time many goods, including certain narcotics, are outright banned in some systems and their transport can net a smuggler a huge paycheque - or a severe punishment.

APPLICATION

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It's a pretty straightforward app but the blank below offers some guidelines anyway. Copy the code and fill her in. Bear in mind that since I'm not asking for RP samples, whether or not your character gets accepted hinges pretty much entirely on the quality of your app.

Name: Your character's full name and any nicknames, e.g. Steve "Captain America" Rogers
Age:
Sex:
Position: Can be anything you want it to be, but in particular MacAvity's going to need a Captain, First Mate, Pilot, Mechanic, Doctor and a few people who can serve or at least double as Enforcers. There can be more than one of most roles and some roles can overlap. For example, the first mate might also be one of the pilots.
Appearance: Written descriptions are preferred but pictures are welcome instead/as well. Don't forget to spoiler images
Personality: Write about your character's interests, likes and dislikes and generally how they are as a person. Try to create a full profile instead of just a list of adjectives.
Biography: A reasonably detailed description of your character's life up until the beginning of the RP. Try to fill out at least a few paragraphs.

Code: Select all

[box][b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Sex:[/b]
[b]Position:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Biography:[/b] [/box]

ROSTER

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Captain - Danya "Daggers" Astadt - Saleon
First Mate - Ethan "Spider" Ibn Jaffer Al-Ahmad - Utceforp
Pilot - Lucya "Lucy" Chekov - Esternial
Pilot/Enforcer - Luke "Story" Jamesville - Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States
Engineer/Enforcer - Demeter "Boffin" Spring - Argentumurbem
Engineer - Callum "Toolbox" Brady - Krytonus
Doctor/Enforcer - Konayama "Milky" Miyuki - Relikai
Enforcer - Jackson "Jarhead" Taranto - Cerrania
Cook/Enforcer - Allan "Garlic" Dagursson - Kaidou
Technician - Chrisopher Mistoffelees - North-by-Northwesteros
Robot - #NN364773 "Dave" - Neo Arcad

[Ularn]

THE STORY SO FAR

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While docking at the Counterweight Station of the planet Beta Trinity to reshoot and find work, the crew of the MacAvity were approached by an enigmatic and wealthy woman calling herself Marlon. The deal she offered seemed straightforward yet lucrative; travel to Sol System, locate a damaged ship hidden in the asteroid belt, retrieve a specific capsule from its hold, and don't ask questions.
Using the information provided by their employer, the MacAvity was able to track down the stricken vessel and retrieve the capsule - in fact a medical stasis pod holding a woman in cryosleep. They weren't the only ones looking for their prize though; a Belt Coalition Security destroyer called the Pavonis Mons interrupted MacAvity's crew while they were searching the ship, forcing them to think fast in order to attempt an escape.

[Ularn]

Reserved for potentially important OP-type stuff

So is this

[Ularn]

Reserved for potentially important OP-type stuff

So is this

And this

[The Great Devourer of All]

Tag, this looks great. Very professional-looking OP, by the way. It looks like you spent quite a long time working on it.

[Esternial]

Do want.

Current WIP app:

Name: Lucya Chekov, "Lucy"
Age: 26
Sex: Female
Position: Pilot/Navigator
Appearance:

Personality: Lucy is a stubborn, hard-headed gal. She says what's on her mind and often the people around her respect her for it; and even though she might sometimes come across as rude or insensitive, she's got a soft side. Despite her rude-ish demeanour, she always has the well-being of her crew in mind, dutiful as she is. Among strangers she may seem like a sassy bitch, but among her crewmembers and friends she's know to be more warm-hearted and join in on the conversation like any normal person would. Deep down she has a thirst for thrills and excitement, and there's a slight sadistic edge to her personality. She's very much a top.
Biography: As the name probably reveals, Lucya's born and raised a warm-blooded Russian. Her father had a management position with one of the Belt Coalition's many asteroid mining industries, while her mother was a teacher at a local university. Both her parents encouraged her to follow her dreams and did their best to ignite a thirst for knowledge, her mother in particular, but at the end of the day Lucya always found herself looking up at the sky and longing to explore every single radiant dot above.

They her parents didn't demand or expect her to, Lucya felt in some way obliged to pursue a higher education, knowing it would please her mother. After attempting a year of Aerospace Engineering, she eventually enlisted into a pilot training programme, funded by a subsidiary of her father's employer. They provided her with a solid training and permitted her to pursue further academic studies to complement her pilot training. When she graduated, she did so among the top of her class, with a pilot certificate and as a fully-fledged navigator. It was time for her to spread her wings and leave the nest, and her parents encouraged her all the way. Her father offered her to help her get a steady job with his company, but Lucya declined. Rather than accepting the easy road to a good life as a freighter pilot or something like that, she sought out to become an independent woman. It was from that day onward she began to refer to herself as "Lucy"

Nobody told her it would be easy, but she didn't expect it to be. Finding a the right job turned out to be harder than it seemed, and Lucy was rather picky considering her circumstances. Fortunately for the crew of the MR-656 MacAvity, Lucy felt their ship seemed like a path to a new life.

It's rather late so I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to finish it today.

[The Imperium Empires]

Name: Felix Consantine
Age:34
Sex: male
Position: 1st mate
Appearance:

Personality: He has always been a highly moral person from a young age and believed killing to be unecessary in all case but will fight if he is forced into it. But with his cunninnes he has been able to avoid co flick which would stick with his morals. He has a bit of a greedy side to him but will do anything to help his friends if it even means dying. He is also quite a caring person going out of his way to help the weak and homeless and one day wishes to see humanity reunite again.

Biography:

Overview:
Born on the colony of UAZ, the colony created by Australia and New Zealnd. He was raised in a life of wealth and and happiness but his father had always been a charitable man it's where he may have gotten his morals from. Being rich helped him achieve many thing in life like getting Ito a prestigious college and getting a good job. When his father died he had a fallout , quit his job and decided to become a merchant. When he came across this crew of merchants he decided to join them in the conquest for wealth. He has aid he wants to go back to his home colony again one day when he's made a name for him self and being part of this crew he could do just that.

His relationship with his father was always very close but when he died he just want the same. When he wa 10 his mother had died of cancer breaking his father slowly but he kept marching on helping his son. But when his father died he knew he had never told his father he truly loved him and that has haunted him his entire life.

His life in the UAZ colony was quite fortune , he got a great education and lived very healthy life style. He wishes humanity can grow again and be one in all . Even since he became a merchant he has said he will return home and make a difference change then face of humanity. While his life of a merchant has been good and plentiful he doesn't enjoy it that much he would prefer to be a politician and such but he accepts we all have a destiny.

[Saleon]

It's not like I tagged you or anything!!!!! ~BAAAAAAAKAAAA!

do we also get moral questions like they would do in star trek? I am in either way, but I wanted to ask if we get some.

[Mirakai]

This looks interesting. Probably won't be able to join, but I would like to declare my interest

[Reatra]

Are we able to apply as Captain?

Because it's always been my dream to be Captain RyRy.

[The Imperium Empires]

Are we able to apply as Captain?

Because it's always been my dream to be Captain RyRy.

You can apply I applied for 1st mate

[Ularn]

do we also get moral questions like they would do in star trek? I am in either way, but I wanted to ask if we get some.

Maybe. Probably. I have moral questions written into the opening plot but I dunno if they will necessarily be Star Trek-esque.

Name: Felix Consantine

I'm afraid I'm going to need a much more developed application than that, dude. Look at the sort of applications that got accepted for this to get an idea of the sort of standard I'm looking for.

Are we able to apply as Captain?

Because it's always been my dream to be Captain RyRy.

Yep; as with the rest of the crew, the captain will be a player character.

[Reatra]

So I suppose the majority of the RP will be smuggling and such?

[Saleon]

do we also get moral questions like they would do in star trek? I am in either way, but I wanted to ask if we get some.

Maybe. Probably. I have moral questions written into the opening plot but I dunno if they will necessarily be Star Trek-esque.

then

in

[Ularn]

So I suppose the majority of the RP will be smuggling and such?

And such, yeah. Like I said in the OP, I'm gonna be aiming for kind of Firefly-esque plot with lots of questionably legal shenanigans.

[Saleon]

So I suppose the majority of the RP will be smuggling and such?

And such, yeah. Like I said in the OP, I'm gonna be aiming for kind of Firefly-esque plot with lots of questionably legal shenanigans.

all the fun.

[Utceforp]

I've got some character ideas. This sounds really interesting.

EDIT: Can I reserve First Mate? Again, I've got some ideas.

[Esternial]

Finished my app. Lucya Chekov.

Can always expand if needed.

[Cerrania]

You guys probably need some hired muscle, don't you?

[Ularn]

Finished my app. Lucya Chekov.

Can always expand if needed.

You can add to it if you want but it looks good so far. Accepted!

You guys probably need some hired muscle, don't you?

Yup, definitely need some kind of enforcer-type peeps on board to point guns and do the heavy lifting.

[Cerrania]

Finished my app. Lucya Chekov.

Can always expand if needed.

You can add to it if you want but it looks good so far. Accepted!

You guys probably need some hired muscle, don't you?

Yup, definitely need some kind of enforcer-type peeps on board to point guns and do the heavy lifting.

Coming right up, fresh from the grill.

Been a while since I did a meathead. Should be interesting. What's the status of any militaries in the Outer and Belt Colonies? Want to make an ex-mil contracting out to the MacAvity.

[Utceforp]

Are we able to apply as Captain?

Because it's always been my dream to be Captain RyRy.

What kind of personality are you planning for your captain? I feel like the First Mate should contrast the captain personality-wise, IE, an extrovert captain and an introvert First Mate or a ruthless captain and a highly moral First Mate. I'd like to know what kind of personality you're planning for your character. If it's too similar to my character, I'll change him to be a co-pilot or mechanic.

[Reatra]

Are we able to apply as Captain?

Because it's always been my dream to be Captain RyRy.

What kind of personality are you planning for your captain? I feel like the First Mate should contrast the captain personality-wise, IE, an extrovert captain and an introvert First Mate or a ruthless captain and a highly moral First Mate. I'd like to know what kind of personality you're planning for your character. If it's too similar to my character, I'll change him to be a co-pilot or mechanic.

Generally a nice guy. Pretty generous, likes to talk, smart, you know, a cool guy. I mean, not that he's "perfect" in any way he's just an extrovert.

[Utceforp]

What kind of personality are you planning for your captain? I feel like the First Mate should contrast the captain personality-wise, IE, an extrovert captain and an introvert First Mate or a ruthless captain and a highly moral First Mate. I'd like to know what kind of personality you're planning for your character. If it's too similar to my character, I'll change him to be a co-pilot or mechanic.

Generally a nice guy. Pretty generous, likes to talk, smart, you know, a cool guy. I mean, not that he's "perfect" in any way he's just an extrovert.

I'm planning on having my First Mate be something of an introverted strategist who doesn't come from a criminal background. I think they contrast enough.

[Utceforp]

Name: Ethan "Spider" Ibn Jaffer Al-Ahmad
Age: 29
Sex: Male
Position: First Mate
Appearance:

Personality: Self-deprecating, introverted, and intelligent. He rarely talks with people he doesn't know unless he has to, and even around people he knows he's quiet and distant, though never rude or unfriendly. He's a natural problem-solver, an analytical thinker who is capable of considering many different options and coming up with complicated solutions even in a stressful situation. Coming from a well-off background, he has a certain "innocence" to him that life as a smuggler hasn't completely ground down, though he is far from a saint of course. He harbours a secret fear that this is a weakness that will one day lead to him making a bad decision and getting his shipmates killed or captured, a fear that has only increased with the increased responsibilities and stresses that come with his promotion to First Mate.
Biography: Ethan was born into a wealthy but small family living on Mars, the son of the CEO of a major cybernetics company. Early in his life he decided to go into academia, studying to become an architect and hoping to be accepted to a prestigious university. However, his life was suddenly altered. His father died of an undiagnosed tumour in his brainstem, leaving Ethan without a family, and legal machinations within the cybernetics company caused him to be disinherited, leaving him without any money.

Ethan, who had always wanted to travel but had always focused on his studies, became a manual labourer on the cargo ship Dubrovnik in order to support himself. Halfway through his posting, he learned that the Dubrovnik was a smuggling ship. Desperate for money, he stayed on, even learning how to use a gun. Ethan found himself accidentally successful, and very quickly "smuggler" became his career rather than just his job.

One of Ethan's crewmates was a bit of an oddball, a big David Bowie fan, and had never met anyone from the Belt before. Upon learning where he was from, this crewmate began referring to Ethan as "a Spider from Mars", a nickname that was later shortened and adopted by the rest of the crew as just "Spider".

After serving his time on the Dubrovnik, Ethan wandered from ship to ship, taking advantage of his intelligence and ability to pass as a wealthy, upstanding citizen to smuggle goods into more dangerous territory. He advanced in prestige and was reasonably respected if not particularly well-known in the smuggler community when he joined the MacAvity crew, and within a year was promoted to First Mate.