Vexx Cid

Vexx Cid
Biographical Information
Race	Hapan
Homeworld	Hapes
Marital Status	Widow
Born	Year -6 Day 215
Languages	Galactic Standard
Physical Description
Gender	Female
Height	5'4" (1.65 meters)
Weight	58 kg
Coloring	Light
Hair Color	Red
Eye Color	Blue
Political Information
Affiliation	Mecrosa

Vexx Cid was born on the Hapan Homeworld of Hapes in the Hapes Cluster. As the only child of Duke Talos Cid and the Dutchess Rina Cid, she enjoyed a comfortable privileged upbringing in the Royal court of the Chume'Dan Palace in the capital. They lived for the most part in a large estate on the outskirts of the main palace compound. Her parents spent most of their working day at the palace where her father, a former, well respected General, served as a special advisor to the royal court on all matters martial. He rose to the position of Duke due to his military career but no further as he had caused a scandal by marrying a musician on the nightclub circuit and far below his social standing. This was very much frowned upon at the time and they were forced to live outside of the royal compound and Keep away from the royal court. That had continued for years until Vexx’s birth when the attitude towards her parents' situation began to mellow and he was allowed to regain his position within the court. This is not to say that everybody at court was overly friendly to the family, but following the death of Vexx’s Grandparents everybody then began to begrudgingly respect the now heads of the family.

Early Life

Childhood

Vexx’s parents had longed for a child for a long time and had almost given up on the idea when Vexx arrived they were delighted. Needless to say they doted on her and took every opportunity to spoil her. As she grew up she found her wardrobe stuffed with the finest of clothes her family could afford, which became a state of affairs she grew used to. As the years passed by she spent a lot of time with her mother who took the time to teach her to appreciate music for its purity. She began to teach her daughter the instrument she had played during her time as a musician, the Sontaran song ball. The song ball is easy enough to get a sound from but requires a good deal of skill, dexterity, concentration and thought to get a tune from. Her mother was amazed that aged eight she was able to produce a tune and together they both played harmonious duets.

Aged nine she earned a place at one of the best music schools in the entire Hapes Cluster, the Hapan School of Music and she spent the whole of her middle school period immersed in music. She was happy there although she was away from the luxury she was used to but she soon settled in and spent several enjoyable years learning about different styles of music and learning to play various different instruments, her favourites being the Synthtone and the Song Ball. When Vexx reached the age of ten she and her Mother were asked to play for the Royal Court. Their performance passed without much incident although a few of those in attendance were those who did not hold her mother in high esteem, but even they changed their tunes once Vexx and her mother began to play. They played about six pieces that they had previously practised all from famous Hapan composers to the delight of those gathered to listen.

Afterwards the king exclaimed he had seldom heard such beautiful music in his court and asked Vexx’s Mother if they would play again at a large party they were having at the end of the month for a group of visiting dignitaries from the Imperial Union and others who operated on that side of the Galactic Civil War. Her Mother realising that the request was really little more than an order, readily agreed, knowing that a request like this would stand them in good stead and likely lead to more honours being bestowed on the family in the future. Vexx headed back to school but returned to the Royal Court again for their ‘command performance.’ Once again their audience loved it and Vexx’s Mother, the duchess was afterwards showered with gifts from the royal family, chief of which were a new estate in the coastal city of Chume'Dan Harbour.

As Vexx reached the end of her time at the Hapan School of Music, she felt a little sad but knew that her next step would open up the entire galaxy for her. She graduated with honours and returned home. The summer was spent with her parents at their new estate on the coast. Most days they took out their Coral Vanda, the ‘Wave Rider’. They undertook short voyages along the southern coast of the main continent, from the Harbour city to the large crater that spelled doom to the planet’s original inhabitants thousands of years ago. Once they reached the crater, her Father along with HK-406, the family’s old HK Series Protocol Droid explained the story of what must have happened on the fateful day the large asteroid had impacted the surface wiping 3⁄4 of the species from Hapes’ surface and condemning those who survived to a terrible fate as the remaining species were mostly killed off bar a few individuals. Vexx was in awe of the power that must have been unleashed at that point and resolved that one day she would journey from her homeworld and see the asteroids in their natural habitat, the cold vacuum of space.

After that holiday she went back to her life at the Royal Court learning those things a young lady of her social standing needed to know, etiquette and deportment, along with a dash of politics and general cultural details. She was not very keen on this side of things but her Mother told her she had no choice in the matter. She excelled at everything she was taught by the Stream of Protocol droids and tutors her mother presented to her, each expert on different matters. Her father realised quickly that she ought to receive lessons on other things too and so she began to take lessons in galactic history, astronomy and navigation. That year she felt as if she had her brain stuffed with more information than she thought she could ever use in her lifetime, but she persevered and at the end of the academic year all her tutors said she had been a good student and had taken in everything she had been taught.

A Trip to the Palace

They kept up this regime of learning for most of the next year or so and when Vexx became fifteen, the Hapan age of majority she was summoned to the palace itself.

It had always been the tradition for the Monarch to invite each youngster of the Royal Court to the Palace on the occasion of their fifteenth birthday and be formally presented to the ruling monarch who would routinely present him or her with an official document detailing the childs official position in court which was normally accompanied with a present. That morning she got up early and her Mother helped her to dress and fix her hair into an acceptable style. Her mother had chosen a sumptuous dress in cream with gold highlights for her to wear and a matching circlet to fit across her brow to hold the hair in place. Once Vexx’s ensemble had been fitted, she watched sitting quietly as her mother dressed in her finest gown before her Father entered the room. “Vexx,” The Duke began, “You look more and more like your mother everyday.” “Thank you Father,” She replied. “Are you sure you know what to do today? Do you want to double check anything?” “No Father, I think I know all I need to know,” she told him. “Good, I think you have your Mother’s patience to,” “Yes dear, if she had your impatience, she’d get us all sent off world,” her Mother interjected. The Duke laughed, “That she would my dear, it's a good job she is far too sensible for that.” “I’ll try not to embarrass you Mother,” she told her gently. “I know you won’t, little one,” her mother told her quietly, “Do you like that new dress?” “Yes Mother, it fits in all the right places.” Her father laughed again, “You are growing up too quickly little one, it won’t be long and you’ll be moving out.” Now it was Vexx’s turn to laugh. “When you're both ready I’ll be down at the front waiting in the speeder,” he told them as he left the room. In the end he only had to wait ten minutes before his wife and daughter emerged from their home. Once they were inside the roomy speeder, the duke signalled the droid to head to the palace.

The droid flew the family’s bright red PL-90 speeder quickly to the Palace and Vexx was quite shocked to see the palace all lit up and shining in the early evening light. Sure she had been to the palace before but today was her day, admittedly with a few others who shared her birthday. The speeder pulled up just outside the Palace where a thick dark blue carpet was set out at the kerbside showing them where to go as they arrived the speeders doors slid open. “After you Daughter,” her Mother told her curtly and Vexx slid herself from her seat and gingerly stepped from the speeder. Two well dressed members of the royal court approached them. Her father gave one of them a small scroll, which he withdrew from his inside pocket. The first of the men took the scroll and looked up their details on his datapad. “Ah, Duke and Duchess Cid and young Lady Cid, we have been expecting you,” he told them as he pressed a button on his pad. As he did so a group of guards in full ceremonial uniform appeared from a hidden door and took up positions around them. “Duke Cid, the King himself requested that you are to be escorted by a full Honour Guard as befits your station as one of our foremost Generals.” “Thank you, but technically I’m an Ex-general these days” the Duke told him and they began to head into the Palace. They walked along long corridors towards the Throne room itself somewhere, Vexx had only been once before to play with her mother at the reception the Royal family had for some guests. The guards pulled up in front of a group of chairs occupied by a very small group of young people. “Please take a seat Lady Cid,” One of their two guides told her and she looked at her father who just nodded to her. She walked to one of the unoccupied seats, noticing several faces she recognised from the royal court, to whom she nodded and sat down carefully trying not to crease her dress. They waited until the last few seats around them were filled with a couple more young people. Then at the sound of several horn blasts the royal family arrived.

The King and the Queen sat in their thrones with their children arranged behind them on smaller, yet just as grand seats. One by one each of the youngsters were called up to stand before the royal family and have a quick chat before returning to their seats with a small package along with scrolls showing their titles, which had been given to them by one of the king’s courtiers. As they seemed to be going up in alphabetical order Vexx seemed to be towards the front of the queue so to speak., but she was called up soon enough. Unlike the rest of the youngsters her parents were called up to. “Duke and Duchess Cid and their daughter, the Lady Cid,” The King’s announcer called out sharply and clearly.

Vexx stood up and watched as her parents moved from their seats and waited at the gold rope which cordoned off their section from the thick blue carpet that led up to the dais the Royal family’s thrones sat atop. Her father looked great to Vexx, dressed in his old ceremonial uniform complete with his sword beside him. Vexx stepped out from behind the rope and began to walk carefully up the carpet to where her parents stood waiting. She walked along as she had been taught with her head held high, not looking directly at the royal family and slowed as she reached the point where her family waited. Her father waved her gently on indicating that she was to go first and so Vexx carried on her walk up the carpet towards the royal family as her Mother and Father fell instep behind her. Together they walked until they reached the steps up to the thrones where they stopped and waited to be invited up.

At first the silence was palpable, and then the King stood and waved them forward. “My dear, young lady Cid, it brings us much joy to see you again. The Ambassador from the Imperial Union won’t shut up about your stunning playing of the Song ball, I hope you are proud of her Duke?” “Always Sire,” her father told him. “And so that should be you may approach the throne Lady Vexx.”

Vexx carefully traversed the carpet clad steps up to the thrones, then curtsied quickly to both the King and his Queen. The king indicated that she should kneel in front of him and she did exactly as her mother had instructed her and waited for what came next. “By the powers invested on me by my father the late king I induct Lady Cid formally into the Royal Court, where upon the passing of her parents she will gain all of their lands and titles. I also wish to gift you these items,” the king said as he placed a long bejewelled necklace around her neck and one of his servants placed a medium sized wooden box in front of her. “Your majesty, thank you for your kind words. I promise to serve you and your family as my parents have done, in whatever way you see fit.” The queen smiled at her, “You may rise, Lady Cid.”

Vexx carefully stood picking up the box as she stood. She was surprised that such a relatively small box could feel quite so heavy, in fact it almost felt as heavy as her Song Ball. She walked backwards from the king and queen until she reached the edge of the steps and bowed towards them low before she turned and descended the steps as her father bowed and then saluted the king before following his daughter back to their seats.

After she got back to their seats she headed back to her own seat and sat back down. She waited whilst the rest of the teensagers got their gifts and titles until she heard a little comotion and she focused her attention towards where the King was now standing.

“Whether or not,” he began, “You know it, you are the future of the Hapan people. You will lead them onwards once I have left this life and as I now see it Our people are in safe hands. So thank you all and I assume you are all hungry? There is food in the adjoining room for you all,” he told them and he then lead the rest of the royal family from the room. Around Vexx various young people rose from their seats and headed off into the adjoining room seeking out the food the King had mentioned. Vexx waited a little until her parents crossed the room to join her, “That's a very expensive present the king gave you Vexx,” her mother told her. “Is it Mother, I can’t really see it properly from this angle.” “Yes it is, I’m pretty sure the jewels are Laboi and Berubian, high quality too. Certainly a kingly gift. Your playing must have really impressed him,” her father interjected. “Well, I like it. Although it looks heavy it feels light whilst I’m wearing it.” “A sign of exquisite craftsmanship, you’re a very lucky young lady I don’t think anybody else was gifted anything quite as nice, my dear,” Her Mother told her lovingly, “What was in the box?” Her father asked with genuine interest. “I have no idea, but it seems expensive so I’ll wait until we are back in the speeder, Father.” “Good idea, now let’s go and get some food, I’m famished.”

A little later that evening back in the speeder…

Vexx picked up the wooden box. She opened the clasp that held the lid shut and inside she found an item wrapped in a large piece of navy blue velvet, tied with a long black piece of silk ribbon, which in turn was covered at the knot by an envelope which bore the royal seal. Inside the envelope she found a handwritten note from King Andrew himself. ‘My dear Lady Cid, I hope you like this present. It has been in the royal collection since the days of my father and was made by Master Jigo Fel, probably the finest instrument maker in our world's history. I cannot think anybody could do it more justice than in your skilled hands.’ Vexx passed the note over to her father and she began to unwrap the instrument. As soon as her mother saw the instrument she almost screamed, “I know that Song Ball, it used to sit in a locked cabinet in the Palace, I was never allowed near it, you are so lucky.” “I’m sure once I have tried it Mother, I’ll let you have a go,” Vexx told her. “What have I done to deserve such a kind and considerate daughter as you? No that gift was meant for you, you should have it for yourself.” The Song Ball itself was silver in colour with a section of the top half plated in gold coloured Electrum. It was an instrument of pure beauty, she could feel the quality of it as her hands traversed the surface of it. Clearly it had not been played recently if at all.

She shifted her position in the speeder and placed the box on the seat beside her. She gripped the instruments lightly but firmly between her hands and she began to test it out. She started out playing a piece she had written for her final exam at the School of Music.

As the start of summer began to fade into the heat of the middle Vexx’s parents sat her down and together they began to discuss what she wanted to do in her future. They considered the idea of extending her musical education off world or going off in a different direction. At the end of the day her parents decided they would be happy with whatever decision she made and ultimately left the choice up to her. Vexx gave it a lot of thought over the next couple of weeks and quickly came to the decision to study at the Hapan Military Academy. Her father was quite happy about that as he had attended the Academy when he was his daughter's age. Her mother, although she outwardly did not show it, hated the idea as she really hoped that Vexx would follow in her footsteps and play professionally. The duke went away and filled out her application for her so she could submit it quickly and hopefully get a quick acceptance message. Vexx took the application and submitted it straight away.

A week later she received a message accepting her as a student at the academy. With only a few weeks left before she would have to leave, her father began to take her out for a few trips where he taught her the basics of piloting and how to read star charts and things like basic droid maintenance. Her father was pretty pleased with how easily she picked everything up, from the basics of how to steer a ship to more nuanced tasks like Micro jumping the hyperdrive and plotting the best course around a star. She did really well until it came to docking the small freighter they were using into the family’s Colossal-class Heavy Carrier. She forgot to align her direction of travel with the large ship’s and came within a few metres of the docking bay’s entrance bulkhead. Her father did not criticise her for the misjudged attempt and instead just showed her how to do it perfectly. Her second attempt went very much better and she steered the ship into the bay and landed at the correct place with far more accuracy. Her father also showed her how to use an A-280 and the DLT-20a. He was very pleased to see that after a week she was able to field strip the rifle, clean it and reassemble it in a decent time with total accuracy.

The Military Academy (Part I)

Vexx stood next to the family speeder and said goodbye to her parents at the family estate’s private landing pad. Her father had loaned her one of the family’s collection of small freighters, in this case a YT-510 so she could travel to the Lorell system where the Academy had one of their training facilities. She travelled with HK-406 the family's old HK series Protocol droid, which had been freshly reprogrammed so he could pilot the ship back to her family once she had been safely escorted to the entrance to the academy. She had a soft spot for the battered old silver droid, as it had accompanied Vexx on many occasions and was quite glad of the company although she insisted on piloting the ship to Lorell. In the 510 the journey only took them half a day or so plus the time to get across the system to the main planet itself. She landed at the local landing pad and the droid unloaded the family speeder and escorted her to the training facility. The droid deposited her and her cases outside the main building before it departed to the landing pad to return the ship to the family.

Vexx picked up her bags and the pile of cases and headed into the compound. She handed the Watchdroid on the main gate her datapad with the message telling her to report there. The droid directed her to a large block towards the back of the facility which acted as the students' living quarters and she headed there. Once she entered the block a slightly worse RA-7 droid directed her to room number six and she walked away in search of that room. A few weeks later and settled in with her new classmates most of whom were using the experience as a stepping off point for careers in the Military, Vexx found herself enduring mornings of drill and afternoons sat in a classroom learning about tactics, weapons and starships. At the end of that year she learned that after the festive break they would begin instruction in piloting and navigation. She could not wait and once the holiday was over she returned to the training facility on Lorell and soon enough they were ushered off to the classroom to learn the basics of flight. To some degree this bored Vexx as she already knew it all, but she treated it as a chance to remind herself of everything she had been taught by her father the previous year. Once the actual flight classes began she began to impress her instructors. During a long session of simulator based combat lessons she managed to achieve a much higher score than her peers and so the instructors increased the difficulty of her simulation pod to give her more of a challenge. She fought through the new challenge hard and only managed to ‘die’ once after she mistimed launching a concussion missile and got shot from behind.

Afterwards one of the instructors asked her if she had experienced combat before, to which she replied she had only had conversations with her father about it. After the flight section of their course was finished the students were split up into smaller groups to study courses they had selected earlier in the term. Vexx’s chosen courses were in Engine design, advanced flight techniques and hyperspace travel. Her first course was on advanced flight techniques, a course normally offered to third years but offered to Vexx based on her flying skills. The first part of the course was spent studying various types of navigation from charting around blackholes to plotting a safe course through an asteroid field. Vexx enjoyed the subject greatly, especially when they were allowed out in ships again to traverse an asteroid field. Her final part of the course on Advanced Flight Techniques was of great interest to Vexx. It dealt with a lot of things she had not tried before and some of the other stuff her father had shown her. Best of all was a brief trip through an asteroid field where she finally saw asteroids the size of the one that made the big crater on Hapes. She found the view incredibly inspiring. The rest of the course covered micro jumping and things like rescuing ships in distress. Having completed that with flying colours, she moved on to her next course regarding engine design. She discovered to her amazement that it was a subject she excelled at and enjoyed a great deal. She really loved the fact she could take a perfectly good engine and with a bit of work and a few new components she could make it go faster or more fuel efficient. She did very well at the course although she found herself having to work hard to achieve a decent grade in the course. The final course covered the fine art of navigating in hyperspace, how to scan the route to plot a course for a new Hyperlane. Again she discovered much to her surprise she picked it up pretty easily, but again had to work on it to master the subject.

The year moved by quickly and a little before the festive break she was called into the commandant's office. “Cadet Vexx, after the break we send each of our recruits out to a special work placement. For the most part we match cadets to an appropriate placement. In your case we can’t decide which of two placements to send you to, I have decided to give you the choice, you don’t have to decide right now just when you return. You can take a posting to the Hapan Explorers Corps on one of their short term missions just beyond the Outer Rim or there is a new position in the development team of the Miy'Tiq, the upgraded version of the Hapes Consirtium's main fighter, I know the development chief and I think they could use somebody of your skill on the engine side of things, anyway those are your two choices, you have until you return to make your choice.” “Yes, Sir, I’ll inform you as soon as I make my choice,” She said as she saluted the grey haired commandant. “I have every faith in you cadet, dismissed,” he replied, turning to the datapad on his desk.

The Marriage

Vexx returned home as soon as the term finished and immediately headed to see her father. She explained the choice the commandant gave her and her father sat at his desk looking stern as if he too had something on his mind. He told her that the choice was hers as both options were quite the honour to be chosen for. She left him to his thoughts and headed to her room and changed out of her uniform. A couple of days later she sat down to dinner with her parents, “It’s good to see you Vexx, looks like you’ve grown a lot since the summer?” her mother told her. “Yeah, a bit,” Vexx said, a little embarrassed. “You look good for it though, a lot like your mother did when I first met her,” the duke told her. Her mother shot him an annoyed look. The duke sighed, “It’s not like we have much of a choice, Rina.” “Vexx, my darling daughter, as I’m sure you know, arranged marriages are a major thing at court. Well, we have had an offer of marriage for you.” The words practically hung in the air as Vexx tried to wrap her head around what her father had just said. “You can’t be serious,” Vexx said as she got up from the table, “that I’m not interested in at all, not now, and not ever,” she practically screamed at her father. Vexx felt betrayed by her father, she perfectly understood he really had no choice but she felt he could have tried harder to protect her from this. She really felt he did not know her at all.

“You don’t understand Vexx, not only do you not have a choice, we have no choice but to accept, he is much closer to the king than we are, if we refused we would be thrown out of the royal court and be stripped of all our land and titles.” “And I told you Talos, that never mattered to me, only our daughter's happiness.” “You know before I met you Rina, I was going to be married to one of the late king’s cousins. I broke all the rules of royal protocol to be with you and look what it did to my parent’s, I don’t want Vexx to suffer the same as I did back then, it nearly destroyed my parents and I.” “So you’d happily see our daughter unhappy than go against protocol again? I thought you loved her? Maybe I was wrong about that too?” “If the proposal had come from Lord Scramlon rather than the king himself a refusal would have been acceptable but I cant refuse a request from his majesty, I just can't it really would be social suicide.” Vexx had never seen her parents like this before. It was clear to her that this row had been simmering for a while now.

“I know Scramlon has a bit of a reputation, but I’m sure he’s not that bad?” Her father said. Vexx's mother sighed, “We’ll talk about this after the holiday but I think I need some time with my daughter,” Her mother told her husband sharply as she stood up and left the room. “Father, we can talk about this tomorrow, ok?” Vexx told him. “I’m sorry I had to spring that on you, I really have no choice and I do love you.” “I know father, but we’ll talk about it again soon. I need to speak to mother.” Vexx hurried off after her.

She eventually found her mother sat alone in the small courtyard at the centre of the house. She had clearly been crying and she looked up as Vexx entered the courtyard. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” she told her daughter, “Your father and I almost never even raise our voices to one and other let alone argue, but this is different and he just refuses to see it.” “Mother, what is Lord Scramlon like?” “He has a reputation, but he is a good soldier and a colonel no less so you’d be in a decent position at court, if you decided to go through with it.” “I have a choice?” “Not really, you can refuse the proposal, but it would make your life and ours very hard, at best we would be back to where we were when we married or at worst you would be banished from court.” “But you and father might suffer too?” “Yes.” Vexx turned away from her. “I think maybe I ought to meet Lord Scramlon.” “That would be prudent, but your Father is right, the king has left us no choice but to accept. Much as I hate the idea as you do, you’re going to have to marry him unless something happens to him before the wedding happens, although from that point of view, it would be better if he died after the wedding that way you inherit his titles and wealth.”

Vexx went away from her mother for a while, changed her clothes and gently fell asleep with a lot on her mind. The following day she was up early and headed to court, but rather than asking the ladies in court what they thought she spoke to the servants and droids. The servants did not say too much but the droids told her a lot and they did not like him much. She was told he delighted in beating the droids when he was drunk, which was quite frequent. Vexx did not like the idea of somebody bullying droids, after all they can’t defend themselves.

Eventually they arranged a meeting between them and she decided that despite his reputation he was not too bad, on the other hand she had no interest in marrying him at all. Throughout the meeting she made it abundantly clear that she would only agree to a marriage if she was allowed to finish her education first, which seemed to displease him. She just hoped that she could find a way out of the arrangement before then. The festive holiday vanished in a flash but she made her decision about the placement and decided to take the job working on the new ship design. As a present her father loaned her the YT-510 she used to get to the academy along with an astromech droid for the rest of her time there.

She left quietly early before dawn the day before she had to return to the Academy.

The Military Academy (Part II)

She left her father a note letting him know she forgave him for the whole affair and she’d see him again at her graduation in a few months. She reached her room where the rest of her class would normally reside, but being a day ealy nobody had arrived yet. She took her datapad from her bag and sent a quick holomessage to the commandant informing him of her intention to take the placement with the design team. She ate a dinner of survival rations she had secreted in her trunk, where she had stashed them after the annual week long survival training exercise. She had a drink and then fell asleep.

The next morning she was awoken by the first of her dorm mates arriving back from their holidays. By mid day most of the cadets had returned and Vexx was summoned to the commandant's office. Vexx headed out of the dorm and went straight to the office. “Cadet Vexx, reporting as ordered,” Vexx called out as she came to attention and saluted. “Excellent Cadet,” the commandant said, returning her salute, “I have just sent you the details of your posting, just don’t forget your posting is classified so no telling your dorm mates where you’re going. I am glad to see you brought your own ship, you can head straight out. They will be expecting you in two days. Dismissed cadet.” “Thank you Sir,” she said, saluting again and smartly turning around to leave the office. She headed back to the dorm and began to empty her footlocker into her duffel bag. “Hey, Vexx, they booted you out already?” one of her fellow cadets called over to her. “No I’m just off to my placement, it’s a couple of days flight away,” she told them all. “Oh right we’ve not heard about ours yet, you got anything nice?” “It’s classified, can’t talk about it,” Vexx replied curtly. The other cadets looked at her curiously but knew better than to ask questions. Vexx finished up packing the bag and locked up her remaining possessions. “Right guys, I’ll see you in a few months when I get back. hope you all get decent placements?” she told everyone as she shouldered the bag. She walked out of the dorm and headed to the entrance. At the entrance she found one of the Academy speeders waiting for her and quickly she was ferried off to her ship at the local landing pad. She thanked the droid and exited the speeder, walking over to her ship. She quickly boarded and entering the cockpit she took the items she needed. She turned on her datapad and pulled up the details she had been sent. She fed the coordinates she had been given into the navi-comp and began the preflight checks. She made sure her astromech knew where they were off to and she radioed the control tower for permission to take off.

Development of the Miy'Tiq Fighter

Four days later they arrived at the coordinates she had been given and almost immediately the ship’s alarms began to scream at her as this location seemed to be within an asteroid field. She received a message on her datapad instructing her to travel to 5,12 within the system, but not to microjump as it would invite more pirates into the asteroid field. She knew that given the 510 had pretty quick sunlight engines it would not take more than an hour to read the location she had been given. She switched the ship's sensors up so she had a map of the asteroids in the field and with the astromech’s help plotted the best course through. Quickly she reached the location she had been given and she found her ship gripped by a tractor beam which pulled the ship aboard a large station. She gathered up her belongings and walked to the boarding ramp.

Outside she was greeted by an elderly Rodian, evidently the director of the project and a 3p0 series Protocol droid. “Cadet Vexx, greetings. We have been very much looking forward to meeting you.” “Director, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” She told him. “Don’t worry about that, we are all on first name terms here, it’s only a small station and our team is quite big. Now you are here to join our engine team as I understand you Commandant thinks you have a great aptitude for it?” “Yes, sir. I really enjoy the subject and picked it up pretty quickly.” “Good, we like enthusiasm here. The terminal in your quarters has all the specifications on both the ship and the engines. If you would take the rest of the day to familiarise yourself with those, we will put you to work in the morning. Our day starts at 07:30 station time so make sure you are at your assigned room by then, the details are in your quarters, now I have things to attend to.”

The director walked away and the 3p0 droid led her to a small room which was to serve as her quarters. She dumped her duffel bag in the corner and jumped on the terminal opening file after file making notes on her datapad. She continued that until her chronometer indicated it was now late afternoon. She turned the terminal off and left the room in search of food. Fortunately she had downloaded a copy of the station’s floorplan to her datapad so she had a fairly good idea of where the mess hall was located. She quickly reached it and ordered a plate of food from the serving droid. She took the food and sat down taking out her datapad as she did so and carried on reading the specs of the proposed engines. She had found a few things she thought might be compromises and a few things she thought she could improve on. She ate in silence considering the various options to solve the issues she had found. She finished up her dinner with a steaming hot mug of caf and then headed back to her quarters to sleep.

The next morning following a decent breakfast, she headed off to the room that housed the engine team. She introduced herself and in turn was introduced to all the members. She was then asked to give them her thoughts on the information she had been given. She outlined her thoughts and was surprised to learn that the extra power she had found had not been accounted for by the team themselves.

“Well, cadet,” the project leader began, “Looks like that all seems pretty handy, but isn’t that power assigned to the shields and life support?” “Only fifteen percent of it is actually used for that , the rest seems to just be channelled into various redundant systems. In all honesty it’s pretty inefficient, if that power is instead just funnelled back into the engine systems you will gain an extra 25% power boost to the engines resulting in a giving a top speed of 87.5 Mglt, which is a pretty decent boost. The new fighter would definitely run rings around toscan’s and Z-95's, not to mention the Uglies the pirates seem to be flying these days. Plus if you add a little strengthening here,” She said pointing to a spot where the wings met the fuselage, “We could add an extra engine, adding another 25% boost to the system.” “Yes, I see, that would be good, although it does push the cost per fighter up,” said one of the team. “I think the navy would weather that for a fighter capable of speeds near to that of an A-wing,” the team leader suggested, “in fact I’m going to table a meeting with them for the end of the week. Cadet, do you think you could present this at the meeting? We’ll help out by preparing the updated schematics and costings for you.” “Sure, I can do that, but wouldn’t it sound better coming from you?” “Possibly, but it’s your idea, cadet, I think you should present it.” “Ok Sir, I’ll do it.” The rest of that week they worked flat out drawing up the improved design, worked out the costs involved, but by the end of the week they had a design that was both radical and elegant at the same time.

The meeting came and Vexx gave it her all. The Hapan Navy looked over the design and gave permission for two prototypes to be constructed as the original design had already been signed off on and they were happy enough with that. Vexx returned to the research station happy and bouyant over the fact they wanted to use the redesign and quickly told her team and the overall Project leader. The next couple of months flew by and pretty soon the first of the engines prototype ships was ready for testing. The engine team set it up in a test rig and fired it up, for the most part it fired straight up and after a little adjustment declared ready for service. Vexx assisted on the final fit out on the other three engines until three months after the start of Vexx’s involvement the first prototype was ready for testing. “As this was all down to your hard work and brilliant insight Cadet,” The Project director began, “ it’s only fitting that you should take her out for the first test flight.” “Are you sure sir, I’m sure there are plenty of more qualified pilot’s than me here?” “There are, but we think you deserve a go, the regular test pilots can get their turns later.” “Well thanks Sir I’ll do my best,” she told him.

She left the room and hurried back to her quarters. She had a plan brewing a way to get out of the arranged marriage and save her parent’s social standing, in fact it might even boost it.  

A week Later in an empty area of deep space adjoining the asteroid field…

Vexx throttled down her YT-510, she had parked directly in the sensor shadow of one of the T-24 Sysat’s the group had placed to monitor the first run of the modified fighter. As she had been part of the team that had placed the satellites in the first place this one had its software modified to allow her a place to park a ship for purposes of he get away, plus a two minute delay before the ship blew up. She had also preprogrammed the flight recorder to give a false record of the moments before the ship was due to explode. It had been pretty easy the last week she made sure she had enough reason to be working in the prototype’s hanger, she had swapped out a power converter to one which upon testing would be the culprit of the ship and her ‘demise’. She had run simulations of her escape via the YT-510’s systems, and she was pretty sure that as long as she stuck to her plan it should go fine. She turned off the slaved controls to the second YT-510 which belonged to the project, switched her astromech to low power mode and headed to the docking port. Once aboard the second ship she headed back towards the station where she was going to claim to have met her father closer to the station than she was going to and switched ships. It was a reasonable excuse and she had it backed up with a hacked message from her father as proof.

She got back to the station an hour or so later and docked the 510 in its rightful place, happy that she now had everything in place, there was still one final task to complete. She headed back to her quarters. She took out her datapad and doublechecked every step of her plan. As far as she could see, everything was covered. The trouble was there could still be any number of issues caused by outside intervention. A last minute inspection of the prototype could spot her tinkering, the obvious investigation into the ‘accident’ could find her hand in the situation and they might work out what happened, but it was a chance she would have to take. She headed back to the restricted hanger and ran a system test on the ship. Everything seemed fine, nothing new cropped up and the minor energy spike from her faulty power convertor was still well within tolerances. She hoped that it would not be spotted in the scans until it was where she needed on the final run.

“Just one final check, cadet?” came a voice from behind her. “Yes, sir. Just making sure everything was looking good for the morning’s run, I don’t need any surprises. I thought there might have been a bit of a power spike from the power convertors but it’s all within the specified tolerances so all is good.” “Excellent, well it should all go ok then, cadet. Good luck tomorrow. If the ship turns out to be as good as its specifications the Navy is bound to order it.” “You think so sir?” “Yes, I really do. We are about to deliver a prototype that exceeds the specification on all counts. When the Command staff see her in action I’m sure the order will be signed tomorrow, then we can all retire. Maybe you’ll not want to, though, you’re a bit young for that.” “Yes, far too young for that, but it will look good on my records” “I should not tell you this but, there might be a job offer from this facility on the table once you graduate from the Academy.” “That's very kind of you all, we’ll have to see what happens once I finish with my education.” “Well, whatever you choose somebody will have a fine new employee.” “Thank you sir, I appreciate the thought.” “Oh and I thought you ought to know we might have some surprise guests at the test tomorrow, I invited your parents to come and watch the test from our command ship, plus there is a rumour that the palace is sending an observer to.” “Oh ok, thank you for inviting my parents, it’ll be nice for them,” she said although she was thinking, ‘Excellent, even better they will see the explosion and it serves her father right.’ The director turned towards her, “Well Cadet, you should go get some sleep tomorrow’s going to be a long day.” “Yes, Sir,” Vexx pulled away from the ship and grabbed her small tool bag and headed back to her quarters.

The next morning at 10:30 station time the main hanger door was opened and Vexx climbed aboard the prototype. She pulled her flight helmet over her flaming red hair and began the pre-flight checks. Once completed she switched her helmet comms on and began to speak to the station flight control. “Research station control, this is cadet Vexx ready to rendezvous with the control ship as requested,” she told them. “Roger Cadet, you are cleared to launch, good luck with the test.” “Thanks, Flight, Cadet Vexx out.” She began to increase the power to the engines and ignited the two engines she was going to use to get to the carrier. Quietly the ship rose up on the repulsors and slid out of the docking bay. She continued on the two engines to the Nebulon-B the Researchers had outfitted as a carrier for the prototype during the testing phase. She quickly flew the ship from the station over to the carrier, trying a few manoeuvres she had been asked to try along the way and after requesting permission to dock she pulled the ship into the empty docking bay. She pulled the canopy back and jumped out of the cockpit, having changed the system feed over to the Nebulon-B. She pulled herself from the cockpit and tossed her helmet back onto the pilot’s seat.

“So Cadet, how does she handle so far?” the director asked her. “She’s drifting a little, I think the trim is off a little on the Port wing but I just adjusted the power output of the port engine and it seems to have sorted it out for now.” “Good, I’m glad you’ve handled that little issue, we saw that little spike in the power convertors. Does not look like much but we will monitor it whilst we build up to the full power test later,” the director told her, “Director Nadokk, to Flight control, the prototype is secure, captain you can set course for the test course as soon as you like,” the Rodian said into his microphone. “Roger Director Nadokk, we’re underway. We'll go to Hyperspace in about half an hour once we clear the edge of the field.” “You’d better go find a seat Cadet, we’ll be heading into hyper soon.” “Yes Sir, but if it’s all the same to you, I’ll just hang around the docking bay till we get to the test range.” “That’s entirely up to you Cadet,” He said as he walked away.

A While later…

Vexx was almost thrown from the crate she was sitting on as the ship lurched as it re-entered real space. She knew it would be at least an hour before they reached her launch point so she ran the final checks again followed by her set of final checks to ensure that everything was still in place for her. Everything checked out fine, all was in place now she just needed to wait. An hour later the call came over the tannoy that they were at the drop point and she swiftly jumped into the cockpit and pulled her helmet on.

“Vexx to Flight Control, systems powered up and I’m ready to proceed.” “This is Flight proceed at your convenience to the start of the test range, Good luck Flight out.”

Vexx looked around her at the technicians who were standing by in case anything happened and waved them away. She extended the repulsors and retracted the landing gear. She throttled up to ten percent engine power and the prototype took flight once more. As she reached the start point she began to power down the engines until they were just powering the life support.

“Test flight you are clear to proceed on your first low speed run at your leisure,” Flight Control told her. “Roger Flight, proceeding with Low speed run at 10% engine output.” She gently pushed the throttle forward and the engines pushed the prototype forward steadily through the pairs of satellites acting as sensors and recording devices. She glanced at her speed indicator and noticed she was travelling at the prescribed speed. She passed through the final pair of Sysats and she executed a rolling loop back to the new start line. “Very impressive Cadet but save the acrobatics to the end of the testing,” she heard the director gently remind her. “Sorry sir, I could not resist it at that speed, even at 10% the acceleration is pretty fierce.” “Roger that. Hold there a little while our guests are a little way off and then you can proceed with the 25% test,” “Affirmative Sir, Vexx Out.” She sat back in the chair and made sure her straps were tight enough and took a long gulp of water from her flask. In the distance just past the Nebulon-B she could just make out the first of what seemed to be quite a large number of ships arriving from hyperspace. Her datapad lit up with a message from her Father. “Good luck daughter,” was all it said. She was in no mood to reply so she did not send one. She sat there waiting for five long minutes before she got another message. “My dear Lady Cid, you may proceed with the next test,” came the unmistakable voice of King Andrew. “Umm, yes your majesty,” she said haltingly, “Proceeding to the test at 25%.” She throttled the engine up to 25% and kicked the thrust and again was pushed back hard into her seat. All her instruments showed all systems were operating correctly(Except the power convertor, but that was a part of the plan). The ship from a distance looked like a mythical bird of some sort flying gracefully down the course. At around half way through the test course, the ship began to vibrate heavily at the rear end and maintaining a straight course became a little difficult. She persevered and once the ship fit the 25% mark the back end of the ship became more stable. Vexx made a mental note of that and carried on to the end of the course. By the end of the course she powered down the engines and left them on enough to perform a quick turn and bring her back to the line ready for the next test run. “Cadet, is everything ok? Looks like she was a little bit of a handful around 40 Mglt?” “Yes, there was some unexpected vibration from the lateral stabilisers towards the rear end, but once she got up to 25% power it smoothed right down.” “Ah Ok, do you still want to carry on or dock and make adjustments?” “No director, I think we should try the 50% test and if it’s still an issue we can adjust then after all everything else worked fine.” “Ok well then you may proceed cadet, the king is very pleased, both with the ship and your performance.” “Tell his majesty I’m glad he is enjoying the view and the ship is performing admirably.” “Will do cadet, please begin the next section of testing.”

Vexx pushed the power up to 50% and once again the prototype headed down the course, this time the lateral stabilisers played ball and she reached the correct power with no issues other than the power converter. She waited a short while and the director ordered the next section of the test. Vexx throttled her up and took off down the course and again the stabiliser began to play up making the ship very hard to pilot. Vexx sensing the problem lowered the ship’s speed and brought her to a fault just as the stabiliser failed completely. “Control that lateral stabiliser just failed on me, you’d better send me a tow,” she told them. “Roger that, a ship’s coming right out to you.” “Thanks control, I'll see them shortly.” Vexx only had to wait a short while and a YV-666 arrived and tractor her aboard. Once aboard a small group of technicians stripped out the offending part and rapidly the ship was put back together ready for Vexx to start again. She undocked the ship and returned to the start line. “Control, I’m ready to give her another go,” Vexx told them. “Excellent Cadet proceed when like,” The director told her and she powered up the engines and proceeded down the course at speed. “How was that cadet?” the director asked her as she reached the final group of Sysats. “Far better director, not a hint of the previous instability, should be plain sailing from now on.” “Excellent, cadet. His majesty has suggested that we skip the 75% test and jump straight to the full power tests?” “Roger, Director, let’s give the king a show?” “Any problems and power straight down and wait for recovery.” “Absolutely director,” she told them and throttled the ship up to full power, plus she decided to re-route the excess energy set aside for other systems to the engines, she decided she ought to make the demise of the ship as believable as possible. The ship passed through the middle set of monitoring Sysats and she looked down at the speed, she had just passed one hundred twenty Mglt, the top speed of the A-wing. She pushed the engines a little harder and the speed topped out at 135 Mglt. As she neared the end of the course she powered down the engines and her reprogrammed power converter kicked into overdrive. Right on cue, just as it hit the finish line for the test the converter went into full on meltdown, she began to smell the components starting to melt. “Vexx to Control, the Power converter,” the comms fell silent as her program cut the system off dead. She hit the quick release on her straps and pulled the canopy open as the convertor burst into flame. She quickly scrambled out of the cockpit and flung herself in the direction of the YT-510. She could see the droid firing up the ship as she was propelled towards it and reached the docking port easily enough just as the droid opened the door.

Aboard the Hapan Battle Dragon, ‘The Kings Hand’ a few minutes earlier...

King Andrew looked on as the new prototype fighter sped along the course. “Your daughter is quite the pilot, Duke Cid, I’m impressed, very impressed.” “Yes Sire, I taught her to fly and she seems to have remembered what I taught her well. Wait, what’s that?” The duke called out as he saw the new ship burst into flame and then explode violently. He collapsed to his knees in silence.

Aboard the Nebulon-B…

“Vexx to Control, the Power convert…” “Status,” the director shouted across the room the team was using to collect all the data. “Looks like one of the power converters failed causing a catastrophic cascade failure in the engines,” One of the technicians called back to him. “Launch the rescue shuttles, anybody getting the cadet’s lifesigns?” the director practically shouted across the room. “According to logs it looks like she had just opened the canopy when the converters blew,” one of the other techs said sadly. The director sat heavily back into his seat, “Somebody give me some good news.” “We did clock the prototype at 135 Mglt beating the A-wing, sir.” “Well then we do have that. I need somebody to head up a team to see if the converter was to blame or something else?” “She was on my team, it’s my responsibility to find out Director,” the head of the engine team.

Back on the YT-510…

Just as the ship blew the droid kicked the ship into hyperspace, Vexx lay coughing on the floor of the docking port. She picked herself up and dragged herself to the living area of the ship. She pulled her duffel bag up onto the bed and pulled a smaller bag from within which contained her medical equipment. She took a couple of tablets and pulled a /breathing mask and filled her lungs with a mixture of bacta and oxygen. She lay back as the droid piloted the ship fast towards the outer rim.

Low-key Life

Six months later….

Another day, another planet. Having escaped her old life and travelled around the outer rim for a while, she began to run low on funds. Now she did have a few things from her old life she could sell but she realised she did not want to part with those, not right now at least. Her real problem was she was still only seventeen and most employers would not touch her even out here in the middle of nowhere child labour seemed to be frowned upon. She had managed to find a few minor jobs here and there. A little waitressing here and there, a few quick couriering jobs from people who felt sorry for her, she was making ends meet, barely. She kept her ship parked just outside the town, far enough away to deter thieves but close enough she could use it to sleep in, it saved on rent for a start. The local starport’s berthing fees were far too expensive to leave her there anyway.

Regardless of that, she was keeping a low profile to avoid any questions or trying to. The only real problem the town had was it was home to two competing swoop gangs, the Hawkbats and the Bantha Chasers. Both of whom knew she was a decent pilot and were quite keen to recruit her. Vexx for her part had no interest in being a part of either gang but had run-ins with both of them, which had led to her having to defend her ship and move it several times. Eventually she decided the ship had enough fuel left for one last planet hop and she decided to leave that planet and try her luck elsewhere. The YT-510 lifted off into the inky black sky and she was gone and it was at that point she realised the following day was her birthday. She did not have much of a celebration, just a cup of caf with a packet of combat rations she saved for a special day. Her birthday used to be a great day for her but now everything was different, she was practically on her own, her family was half the galaxy away and she was almost eighteen.

After a couple of pretty unexciting days the ship arrived at the backwater planet of Twon Ketee, in the Western Reaches. She found somewhere to land the ship and then put on her survival suit as the atmosphere was pretty hot and toxic, so she had to go carefully. She left the ship and headed to the nearby city. The path through the jungle surrounding the city was hard going full of tall thick vines which were studded with very sharply pointed thorns. She fought her way to the airlock of the domed city and was let inside having had to show her ID card to gain entry. That card was a fake she had purchased on her travels as she wanted to hide her true identity lest anybody came looking for her.

The ID card scanner pinged and she was waved through and she entered the city. After a few days she managed to get a job serving in one of the catina’s near the outskirts of the city and after a few weeks she saved enough money to refuel her ship and then she managed to find a berth at a small landing pad that was more of a ship breaker. She had paid the guy in charge most of her first months wages but had a safe place to hide her ship plus she started to do a little engine work on the side once the owner noticed her tinkering with the 510’s engines. Soon she had scrimped and saved enough cash to change the ship’s IFF chip and hide it’s ID, she also began to give the ship a new paint job, in a decorative pattern of Orange with cream accents. Again the owner noticed her skill at the paint job and passed on any requests he received for that sort of thing straight over to her. She did a little more than one or two a month whilst waiting tables and serving at the bar. She began to build up a little nest egg, just enough money to live on for six months if she needed to run again.

About a month later she found herself at that point again. “Hey Vexx, there was a guy hanging around looking for you. I told him there was nobody like you around, his holo projection was pretty old and poor quality, barely looked anything like you,” He told her. “Thanks, Yugo. I’m gonna have to split, don’t want to get you in trouble.” “I can handle a little trouble, been dealing with it for years.” “Not like this I’m thinking.” “Well you look after yourself Vexx, it’s a big scary galaxy out there, find somewhere far away and sit tight for a month or two.” “Roger that, I have an escape route planned out and I’m going to stick to it.” “Ok, before you go I have a couple of gifts for you, hang on a second, I’ll be right back.” Yugo walked off to his office and picked a package off his shelf. He weighed it up, tossing it from one hand to the other and then headed back out of the room. “Here, it’s a whole new un-programmed IFF Unit. The data card inside it is preloaded with thirty fresh IFF codes, more than I hope you will ever need. Oh and there’s a vial of Coaxium, hyper fuel, enough for one jump, I really hope you don’t need it.”

Yugo gave her a hug, “I’m going to miss you, you’ve been great to have around and you can do engine mods far quicker than me.” “It’s been fun, Yugo, thanks for these, it’s going to be really handy, I should go.” “I don’t think he was a bounty hunter though, did not look rough enough.” “No, I’m guessing a Private Investigator but it would be nice to know who hired him.” “Not much we can do about it right now without alerting him, best you vanish, but watch your back Vexx.”

Vexx picked up the package and headed for the ship. She jumped aboard and heard towards the cockpit. “4X, fire up the ship we are leaving right now.” She heard a bunch of bleeps come from the cockpit as she entered the engine room and placed the coaxium into a trunk full of tools right next to the hyperdrive. She carried the IFF unit to the cockpit just as the ship exited the docking bay. The droid let out a long drawn out bleep as if it was curious as to why they had just left a perfectly good landing pad. “Looks like somebody has taken a little too much interest in us 4X, it was time to depart there.” The droid bleeped again, “I don’t know where to head next, go for somewhere a little nearer the core or farther away try the galactic northeast?” The droid let out a series of bleeps and beeps. ”Yeah that sounds interesting, head there,” She told the droid, and it began to calculate the course to the Iego system, in the Ash Worlds Sector.

Epica

A year and two more planets later…

Vexx had managed to find work in the bar or a cruise ship travelling between Iego and Bak`rofsen. She enjoyed the work and chatting to all the different species that used the ship the ‘Alderaan Queen’ as the ship slowly slid along the hyperlane from Iego to Bak’rofsen. The journey itself took a little over two weeks each way and as well as working in the bar she did a little singing and playing her Songball on the entertainment deck late in the day, ship time. She found she really enjoyed entertaining, she could enjoy it and hide beneath the makeup and the costume where nobody would know who she was. Eventually the ship’s entertainment manager offered her more hours and better pay. At the end of her fifth trip, she was approached by a very well dressed passenger who gave her his holocard and told her if she ever needed a job he ran a small chain of clubs on Bak`rofsen. She thanked him and told him she might have to take him up on the offer. A year later the constant to and fro began to bore her. A week or two later she quit saying she had had enough of this constant travelling and needed to feel the ground under her feet again. She had made plenty of money by that point enough to keep her going for a good number of years for sure.

They headed back towards the Hathrox system in the Kastolar sector. After a few weeks there she found a place to stay, a small room at the back of a bar where she had secured work singing and playing. The system was a bit of a trek from anywhere, but was controlled by Sienar Conglomerate, it was for all intents and purposes a company town and the Galactic Empire seemed to have its hand everywhere. The bar was always busy late into the night and full of Imperial officers who needed entertainment. She sang and played there every night, the imperials seemed to really enjoy it. The owner of the bar was pretty happy as more customers now seemed to arrive every night to see her. She was happy as she got a decent raise and the imperials always left her a decent tip.

As the weeks rolled into months she had gained quite the following with the Imperial officers and enjoyed a decent relationship with the other performers at the bar. Eventually the others decided that Vexx was the main draw and suggested to her they made a more arrangement and form a band. She readily agreed and before long they decided to call themselves ‘Epica’. The owner of the bar now realised that they were growing and began to look for a larger venue, eventually buying a club near the central district.

The club’s opening night also happened to be the first real chance Epica had to perform together. And they quickly managed to get into the swing of things and soon the club was filled with music, the king everybody could dance to. Again the club started to get a reputation as being the place to visit if you wanted some really good entertainment. The Imperial officers who had visited the old bar now got wind of the fact that the band were playing the new club and began to flock there during their off duty time. For the next five years the band played at the club, mainly performing the hits of the day along with the odd one of their own when they felt the crowd might like it. Generally these pieces were pretty well received by the crowd and the reviews of their performances were very good. Around this time they began to receive requests for performances in places other than Hathrox and so they began to travel to nearby systems. They also received a few offers of management and even one to record an album of their own music. Vexx realised quickly that this would be far too exposing for her and the band decided that the deal was not good enough and rejected the offer.

The band were aware that Vexx had a past, none of them knew the deal but they all respected her privacy on the matter and would all keep her secret. About a year later during a quick trip to the Zuni Cluster, a Black Sun controlled system near core, the band sat down and had the first of many discussions over their individual fees. Some of the band were starting to complain that they all did as much work as everybody else but still certain members got paid far more than they did. The owner of the club who also worked as the band’s manager effectively turned around and said there were a few things they should bear in mind. Firstly he had created the band by hiring each of them, and secondly there would not be a band without Vexx. He continued to tell them that the band's pay was based upon that fact and although they were not being paid equally they were all being paid well above the average for their part in the band. This did settle the disquiet for a while, but the subject soon came up again.

Vexx began to realise that although she enjoyed the performance and the music, she missed her former life of having to live by her wits and skill to get by. She resolved that, if and by now that meant when the band split up she would go travelling and look for something new far away from Hathrox. The break up came a few weeks later when the subject of fees came up again. The argument lasted the entire evening and only ended when half the band walked away from the club and the band at that point ceased to be. Vexx had a conversation with the club owner and they agreed that she had made him plenty of money, so he would let her go.

She packed up her gear and left her rented flat. She walked back to her ship which she had recently repainted a two-tone Light and dark grey pattern, and placed her gear into the living quarters. She unpacked everything, placing things where she could get to them and then headed to the cockpit. X-4 turned towards her as she walked into the cockpit, “Hey X-4, sorry I’ve not been around much lately but it’s time for us to leave here again.”

The droid chirped and bleeped loudly and then turned towards the ship controls. “No, it’s ok we are not running this time, I just missed the freedom out there, let’s head somewhere maybe somewhere warm and sunny, Savareen maybe? Not Jakku on Tatooine though.” The droid let out a long low, moan like bleep. “I know you don’t like sand, it gets in your gears, there must be somewhere we can go?” she told the droid. It again let out a long series of bleeps and whistles. “Yeah, that sounds interesting, head there.” The droid triggered the YT-510 to lift off and they began their Ascent to Orbit.

She spent a few years travelling from system to system, picking up work where she could, performing or working delivering parcels and other courier work. Wherever she visited she found things she liked and other things she didn’t. She had not stepped foot within any Hapan controlled system for well over a decade now, she still missed home and her parents, despite what her father had done but anger towards him had mellowed a lot in the intervening years, but she knew regardless of anything else, to return home now would be too hard. For them, her and the Royal court. She carried on exploring, she flew around the rim, out to the edges of Hutt Space and far beyond. She managed to find a little work helping to map new hyperlanes, which she enjoyed eventually doing so for Mecrosa on a job by job basis.

She supplemented her meagre pay with a few jobs painting ships or making adjustments to their systems. Above all she found she was pretty happy doing this; it fulfilled all her needs, sometimes it even paid well. She had no problems with money these days, she had earned a fair amount during the days in the band and had been rather frugal with it. She did not splash out.

Present Life

Having worked a little for Mercrosa, Vexx eventually took a full time job helping map Hyperlanes, a job she found exceedingly fulfilling and spent weeks at a time travelling from system to system gathering data to help complete new hyperspace routes. Whilst at Mercrosa she earned the title ‘Mistress of the Skies’.

=Personality

Vexx can be considered being a "Wanderlust", she likes to travel anywhere, anyplace. Her job is to map hyperlanes, or transport missions. Transport missions are mostly delivering all goods in cooperation with Interstellar Parcel Services.

She performs sometimes on stage, with her band "Epica" and can be invited to attend smaller benefits, or small parties. Also likes to collect clothes from Asa's Shop and goods from Mecrosa.

Occasionally she still likes to design ships, like she painted her own ships, which took months to complete.

Abilities

• Fighter, Freighter and Capital Ship Piloting
• Mapping Hyperlanes
• Training of riflemen
• Creative in the ways of drawing and music

Signature

Ships