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The Beginning
Kar Andor. It wasn't his real name, that one he would rather forget and, in fact, was now nothing more than a faint memory, dimmed by time and a troubled life. Kar Andor was the name he had chosen to call himself and, as such, was what he was now, what he had chosen to be.
Kar was born rich and privileged, the only son of one of the most powerful families of Terra, with a lineage that could be traced back to the planet Earth, to a small country on the western tip of the old European continent. A small but proud country that, according to the old the stories that ran in the family, claimed for himself the title of precursor of the great adventure of discovery, adventure which many centuries later would take man to the outskirts of the galaxy.
As a child Kar was delighted to listen to all those stories, dreaming of travels across the universe in a thousand adventures of discovery, contact and knowledge. Dreams that were supported by his
father who took him from planet to planet in his business travels through the family's economic empire. None of that, however, mattered now, everything had been forgotten, left in the past from the moment Kar, disillusioned with people and the universe, had decided to stop being who he was and to recreate himself as a new man, anonymous, with no past or future, with no expectations or hopes, with just a deep distrust in the goodness of mankind.
The Massacre
It all started with one of these trips, Kar had just turned 18 and his father had finally decided to include him in the family business. After days of travel and a few stops on several systems, the ship entered an unnamed system in an unknown part of the galaxy, slowly approaching a planet without any distinguishing marks that made it stand out from so many others across the galaxy.
All the ship's safety systems had been activated and the crew, put on combat alert, ran to occupy their positions. Klaxons echoed through the corridors and Kar, coming out of his quarters, moved quickly to reach the bridge. There, standing tall by the commander, his father quietly directed all operations, whispering orders to the man who was supposed to command the ship.
Kar looked at his father with a look of concern on his face. Noticing it, the man turned to him and ,with a nod, said "We are near the Xi'an border, in a system recently discovered by our scouts, and the planet you see there, though it doesn't look like much, is rich in mineral resources of extreme rarity. So rich in fact that it will guarantee an even brighter future for our family and the business". His face was masked by a grin as wide as Kar had never witnessed before on him.
Kar nodded, "Aye, but why all this hustle and the general alarm" he asked still surprised by the level of security. His father frowned, turning his face again to the bridge displays that sparkled with operational information "Kar, like all beauties, this one also has one catch" he said slowly, "apparently this planet is, let's say, occupied ..." after a pause he continued "... and we have to vacate it, clean it and prepare it for the extracting operations" he then looked at Kar and watching his face of disbelief, quickly added, "but do not worry, it is just an obscure, miserable Tevarin colony, isolated and unknown to everybody, which for all intents and purposes does not exist and no one will ever know that we pulverised it" he laughed lightly "this will be our little secret Kar" and smiled again fixing his gaze on his son, the lights of the instruments reflecting on his eyes as small, multi-coloured flames, giving him a strangely dangerous look.
Kar was paralysed in disbelief, speechless, how could someone destroy an entire colony just to be able to economically exploit a planet, in his head that didn't make any sense and just sounded crazy, he couldn't believe what was about to happen. However, all the commotion he saw around the place assured him that it was indeed going to happen and was inevitable. "The rest of the fleet just jumped into system Commander" said in a cold, professional voice the Chief Officer "everything is in order and ready to proceed, they're just waiting for your order." The Commander looked up to the man by his side, who gave him a slight nod of agreement, "Start operation Summer Clean-up" he ordered, his firm voice echoing through the entire fleet over the communication systems.
Kar just stayed there in silence, watching through the bridge monitors all the hustle the order had created. Slowly, dozens of bombers, moving away from the larger ships, headed for the planet, initiating descent through the atmosphere, fighters and other smaller ships were strategically placed around the planet to prevent any escape attempt, prepared to destroy all those who dared to try to cross the atmosphere towards the vacuum of space.
Through the screens Kar could follow all that was happening on the surface: the bombers, like evil insects approached miserable villages, of precarious and unsophisticated appearance, and dumped their deadly cargo mercilessly, sowing death and destruction in their wake, decimating entire populations in an orderly and methodical way. Kar looked up into space and in front of him there was a peaceful-looking planet, on its surface small flashes shined, soon followed by black smoke clouds.
After some time, a few stray ships began to emerge from the atmosphere in a desperate attempt to escape the inferno that raged the surface of the planet, just to be immediately killed by the ships waiting for them in orbit.
Those people who had taken refuge in the confines of the galaxy, preferring a life of isolation, misery and insecurity to persecution and humiliation, had been erased from history whiteout even having been part of it.
This ballet of death continued for long hours, disgusted with everything that was happening around him, Kar forced himself to remain on the bridge and witness the genocide ordered by his own father. His head was buzzing and time seemed to have stopped, as if it was just a terrible nightmare.
After some time, unable to endure more of the macabre spectacle that unfolded before his eyes, Kar left the bridge. Quickly, as if in a trance, he ran to the docking bay. There, seeing an abandoned Freelancer MIS, probably waiting for repairs, he approached, carefully, trying avoid detection, and quickly climbed the stairs and entered the ship. Once inside, he gave a quick look into the cargo bay, to ensure there would be no unwanted company, and went to the cockpit where he sat bluntly, turning all instruments on and immediately taking off towards the darkness of space.
In space, there was so many ships moving around that no one noticed the Freelancer that quietly moved to the jump point and without warning, disappeared towards unknown destination.
The Transformation
Kar was not sure where he was, but that was in no way relevant to him, from the moment that he flew away from his father's fleet and jumped into the unknown, he had been dragging around as through a mist that dulled his senses.
In that fateful day Kar had ceased to believe in human goodness, in the inner value of man, any man, as a creative force in the universe and, as such, had also ceased to believe in himself. The hatred and anger he felt for his father, the man who gave the order, and for all others who had pressed the trigger without a blink, had gradually been transformed into indifference and only the will to forget supplanted everything else. He changed his name, adopting the name Kar Andor, for no particular reason, he just liked the way it sounded and, for a time he couldn't define, he dragged himself from system to system, from tavern to tavern, from fight to fight, till he blended with the crowd, crude and violent, that populated the more shady areas of the galaxy to finally become one of them.
On that day, he was in some dark tavern, on a lost world of an unknown system of the galaxy, well, unknown at least for him, getting intoxicated with some of the most exotic drugs he managed to buy. He couldn't care less about what he was getting into in his body, as far as it gave him the blessing of forgetfulness, the peace of ignorance.
Kar had been jumping from system to system on his beaten Freelancer MIS, the only memory of his past life. To survive he accepted any job offer, preferably doubtful, he wasn't picky, and his prices were nice, very nice. He was a smuggler, a bandit, a bounty hunter or mercenary, in short anything and everything that could disturb the established order and would guarantee him some income.
His participation and frequent victories in bar fights; the ease and mastery with all kind of weapons; his relentless determination and feverish absence of fear, pain or any notion of danger; the strict compliance and execution of all business agreements, even if he had to leave a trail of victims along the way, made him gain his street name. They called him Skullsplitter in an attempt to translate his ruthless coldness and determination, his estranged performance.
Gradually, the name Skullsplitter became well-known in the underground of countless worlds. But that had never been his purpose, he never intended to be famous, even if for those reasons.
Skullsplitter - the Space Nomad
Skullsplitter, has he accepted to be called now, had been intentionally moving away from the more densely populated areas of the galaxy, until one day he decided to gather some of the most hardened criminals he knew and form a band of pirates to haunt the borders of the human empire.
In his other life, he had been a diligent and curious student, and he was perfectly aware that the reason why the UEE had never managed to control the Vanduul threat was mainly due to their nomadism, the absence of a civilizational centre that could be attacked and destroyed, causing irreparable material and moral damages to the species that would weaken its determination to fight against humanity.
Knowing this fact, he copied this type of organisation to his band of pirates, never settling, jumping from system to system as a contagious plague, with no base to return to. With no headquarters, no home and no roots, they were really free. His base was his ship, and the same was also true for every other member of his wandering fleet of outlaws. The strategy was found to be effective and the band roamed and hunted almost freely, without ever being seriously threatened by the UEE forces.
The ruthless hunt they led against rich human merchant ships, crossing space full of precious commodities and minerals, was his personal
revenge against humanity, though not consciously or intentionally, for the massacre witnessed in an immemorial time, now lost in the intricacies of all past memories.
For years Skullsplitter lived this life of nomadic pirate, his name became respected and, although he never saw himself as a leader, everybody obeyed him without hesitation.
The Encounter
On certain occasion, at a time when there were unconfirmed rumours running in the pirate underworld of strange occurrences along the Xi'an border, Skullsplitter decided to gather a small group of trusted men, get their best Cutlasses and go investigate on their own what was really happening, trying to find out if there was something they could benefit from the situation.
The group started by scanning the systems along the border, using the utmost caution to avoid detection. Nothing of extraordinary happened until, after arriving at the Horus system, they saw a huge Idris moving slowly to the jump point . Skullsplitter knew the ship was moving much faster than it looked, but its size and the lack of reference points created that majestic appearance of slowness.
After watching the ship jump, he waited, giving it enough time to move away from the entry point in the Virtus system, in Xi'an space. Satisfied, he spoke a few brief commands over the communications system and, instructing the men to follow him, approached the jump point, preparing to follow the Idris into alien space. He knew the risk was huge, they could not only be detected by the Idris, but even worse, they could be captured by some Xi'an patrol. The tension was so big he felt the blood pounding in his temples, but, without hesitation, he jumped, hoping all went for the best.
Fortunately things went much better than expected, the Idris was there, as also was the Xi'an patrol, however they were so busy with each other that the small Cutlasses passed completely unnoticed. The group flew for a while, pulling as far as possible from the entry point and, immediately shutting down all systems to avoid detection. Stopped, silently floating in the deep
black void, they watched the exchange of "greetings" between the human and the Xi'an ships. Skullsplitter turned on all passive observation systems on his ship and stayed there, listening carefully, trying to make some sense from what he was witnessing.
From the radio chatter it seemed that the Idris was trying to establish contact with its Xi'an counterpart, even if, after some time, it was obvious it wasn't getting any success at this task. For him, this seemed perfectly understandable, the Xi'an never trusted humans and always saw them
as a treacherous and malicious species, and, on this respect, he had really nothing to oppose. What could he say? They were absolutely right in not trusting humans, this vicious species wasn't worthy of any trust, human or otherwise.
When the Xi'an decided to give humans a very unorthodox response in the form of a volley of missiles, he knew all chances for a peaceful dialog between the two parties had been lost and waited for a violent response coming from the Idris at any moment. He knew the ship had enough firepower to give a proper response to the Xi'an aggression, enough to obliterate the other ship if
necessary.
To his great surprise, from the Idris, instead of missiles, came a strange transmission, broadcast in all frequencies he was scanning. The message showed only a simple, almost poignant image of a Xi'an pilot lying dead, displaying obvious combat wounds, but still looking so serene and peaceful
that he just seemed to be resting.
Who were those people who, even after being attacked, tried to communicate at all cost and treated the corpses of their attackers with great respect and deference? Skullsplitter was intrigued and, apparently, the message had also been effective with the Xi'an, as they had immediately stopped all attacks and let out a shuttle that crossed space to board the Idris.
From communications, Skullsplitter had managed to identify the Idris as the "Celestial Unity" belonging to a group named Xeno Syncretic Order. He had heard of this group before, although he had never been seriously interested in their ideals or activities. For him it was just a name, one more group, a bunch of people with their own agenda, trying to exploit the galaxy for their own benefit. But now, all those strange events had caught his attention and aroused his curiosity, so much so that he promised himself he would find out who they really were and what were their objectives.
Skullsplitter had no expectations to find anything more than the usual human moral and material corruption, the same perverse greed and lack of moral boundaries he always found in all those who crossed his life, and from that he wasn't even excluding himself. However, now he couldn't
shake from his mind the dead pilot's image, serene on his final rest, and that was enough to wake up a small, faint flame of hope.
"Skull... Skull... is everything okay? Say something. All ships have abandoned the system, we are now alone, I think we can jump safely" the voice of one of his companions echoed in his ears, waking him up from his thoughts "Roger, let's go before the Xi'an return" he responded, starting the engines of his Cutlass and preparing for the return journey.
He was perfectly aware that, from that moment, something inside himself had changed forever.