Varius Kilz Genesis Vol II
11 Jun 2020Varius Kilz
3280He was known as Thomas “Goddamn” Tam. Thomas was a commander in a motley legion of nonconformists and ne'er-do-wells known as the Lotus Syndicate. Lotus dealt in everything that kept Imperial fugitive runaways and Federal murder hobos in a position to survive while remaining off the grid; from Basic Medicines and Agriculture to Battle Medicines and Pharmaceutical Isolators. Lotus could supply anything for a price.
The biggest pain in the ass was the overhead costs from credit-hungry manpower. The overhead cost of financing crew after crew of mercs and privateers for jobs was daunting to say the least. Through year after year of struggling with this problem, the solution presented itself in the form of a vessel not under command drifting in space. “The Lavian Jewel” was a Python outfitted for freighter duty; adrift with a cargo hold loaded from top to bottom with Occupied Escape Pods. Tam stumbled upon the ship sixteen years earlier while marking the area for a score on an Imperial Cutter hauling about 800 tons of Basic Medicines scheduled to be passing through the area.
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Interfacing with the Python’s Black Box, he determined that the ship was interdicted as it was entering the star system of Wu Guinagi and the pilot managed to thwart the would-be assailants by altering course directly into the star itself while being interdicted. In doing so, the resulting intended effect was that they escaped. The resulting unintended effect was that all of the ship’s modules fried to a crisp, save the life support.
Due to the precious cargo of occupied escape pods being transported, the life support module was pre-programmed for priority one and thus the only module to survive the escape. At some point, the pilot decided to insert himself into a pod and they were floating in stasis for approximately three years.
While his collector limpets loaded 450 tons of human cargo aboard his Anaconda “The LSS Crimson Lady”, an epiphany hit Tam. All 450 tons of these pods were a reusable, sustainable and best of all cost efficient solution to his carousel of expensive mercs issue. If he took the youngest strongest and smartest of the passengers and molded them as a father figure to become his loyal crew, then he would have no need for meathead mercenaries and thus, keep more than a fair share of all the profits. Once they became wise to their condition, he could simply cut them loose to let them fend for themselves. Everything they did would be for family. As long as they had a place to sleep, food and some motivation, they would be fine working for the betterment of the family.
Thomas thought this was by far one of his greatest strokes of genius. Thus, he begun the painstaking work of cataloguing his slumbering passengers and selecting the best candidates to be his brand new ride or die family.
Taking the data extracted from the Lavian Jewel, he canvassed the escape pod occupants for the best candidates for his first crew. It seemed that all of the passenger had aliases or slightly altered names on their data chips. Someone used mid-level data altering tech to change the names of everyone onboard. Fortunately for Tam, you didn’t make it to his level in the Lotus Syndicate by allowing anyone with a second rate alt-job walk in on his operations. Using an Imperial-Grade Identifier frequently exercised by bounty hunters to track down runaway conventional slaves labelled as “Deserters” in order to recapture or kill them, he slowly decrypted his new crew’s true information. He took his time with this task, until he descrambled the name of a young man in pod #412 with a peculiar name: Varius Kilz. “He must have various skills.” Tam chuckled to himself. “The Skillman.” Goddamn Tam decided that “Skillman412” would be among the first of his newly revived trainees.
Training would be tough. He had to make sure these young guys and gals were ready to contend with some badass sons of bitches if they were going to survive and be useful. He charted a course for Wu Guinagi. The rest of the slumbering passengers would be stored at a warehouse in an undisclosed location for future use and crew replenishment as needed. The LSS Crimson Lady’s COVAS bellowed,
“FRAMESHIFT DRIVE CHARGING…5…4…3…2…1”
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“How’s my favorite murderous thief of a Captain doing?” Goddamn Tam woke up from his dose to see Skillz handing him a fresh cup of Lavian Brandy. He sat down at the console next to Tam. “Delaine and Kumo Crew are taking over everything and consolidating all of the anarchists, what’s your plan going forward?” Tam took a swig from the cup of brandy. “Screw him. My si-mo raised me to be independent and never cow-tow to any man or suck on the breast of anyone for milk. You go through life, form your crew and make life answer to your terms. If you bleed, bleed for your brother, not your master. By the way, throttle up; we are headed to Federation Space for a big one.”
“FRAMESHIFT DRIVE CHARGING…5…4…3…2…1”