Vasquith de Havilland

General

Vasquith de Havilland, or 'Dev' to his friends, considers himself to be a Drifter. Six feet tall, Total blue eyes and fiery orange hair, he nevertheless blends into a crowd, unknown and incognito. He was born and raised on Earth, and has a correspondingly tall and well built body. He currently travels the galaxy aboard his starship, Vagabond, an Asp Explorer

History

A regular childhood with regular middle class parents, Vasquith's was a regular youth: sports, then computers, girls then mischief. He showed a talent for mechanics and engineering, constantly tweaking his 3152 Cadillac Sprinter ground car. This, combined with an interest of leaving his home planet of Earth, allowed Vasquith to enrol as a field engineer in the Federal Army Corps. A talent with both a welder and a weapon, he quickly found himself within the almost mythical 301st Marines Company. Ten years of service, too many scars and too many hard decisions turned Vasquith from a happy go lucky youth into a hardened, almost cynical adult. Gone were the wisecracks and laughter: The new objective was to get through, one day at a time.

When his time was up, Vasquith jumped ship immediately and returned to Earth to complete his Bachelor of Engineering, started before he had left for the army. His engineering field experience became invaluable and he finished with first class honours. The Alliance of Independent States, now military secure, were looking for bright minds to lead them into the technological edge, beyond what the beaucracy of the Federation, or the slaves of the Empire, could produce. Vasquith got the job immediately and climbed the ladder until he was a project manager, working on exciting, state of the art jobs at the AAAI shipyards.

The Cold Sea beckons

In the end though, the call of the galaxy whispered to Vasquith. He became continually unsettled, until he could no longer contain his wanderlust. He had swapped a life of following orders of using weapons to following orders of making weapons. He wanted to be his own man for a change; control his destiny and live his own life. He had a strong desire to see what the galaxy had to offer a civilian, especially before he was too old to appreciate it He resigned immediately, during a critical phase of the Nano Plasma Accelerator research, and using every last dollar he had, brought a rusted out Adder from the New Rossyth Shipyards.

He left Alioth with no piloting experience - just a few hours in a simulator. He and his ships were unprepared for what faced them: de Havilland managed to make a little money, but spent most of it on upkeep of his recalcitrant Adder, which he named Mary Jane. She was never a pretty ship, but was functional and always got the job done, ironically the opposite of her namesake.

Several months into his piloting life, Several pirates ambushed de Havilland. He escaped into hyperspace, but several bulkheads of the Mary Jane exceeded their stress limits and plastically deformed. They required urgent replacement. Stranded on the northern frontier, de Havilland found a junk dealer on New World in the Hoessbe system. While he was fixing his Adder, the colony of Jeffris' Luck was attacked by the Kildred Pirate Clan and the Mary Jane was stolen.

De Havilland initially had no interest in helping the defeated colony - it wasn't his problem - but he realised he needed their help to retrieve his ship. He took part in an assault on the Kildred Pirates base and calling on his old skills as a Marine, he was able to free his ship.

This Adventure is detailed in Maiden Voyage, which can be viewed at:

• Maiden Voyage

After a year of kicking around the cosmos, de Havilland sells the Mary Jane and buys a Cobra Mk I which he names Odysseus. One of his first trips in the Cobra take him to a small anarchic world where he meets up with his old Sergeant from his days in the Marine, Sam Wagin. de Havilland gets caught up in Wagin's attempt to instill justice on the anarchy planet, but doesn't want any part of it. During a flight from the criminals, Wagin is wounded and killed. Before he dies, a selfish de Havilland promises to 'get involved' and help out the good guys.

de Havilland decides the best way to fulfill the promise is to rid the entire planet of criminals. He finds that Wagin had the blue prints for castle of the largest criminal family and gives this information to their competitors. During the attack on the castle, de Havilland sneaks in, kills the leader of the family and activates a hidden nuclear weapon. Having already called the Federation fleet in, de Havilland retreats to a safe distance to watched the Federation restore order and bring the planet into the Federal fold.

This Adventure is detailed in A call to duty, which can be viewed at:

• A Call to Duty

As time went by and de Havilland was able to fully enjoy life, his piloting skills increased, his insecurity dropped and he became less selfish. His engineering skills enabled him to modify and maintain his ship, even improving the engine and weapon systems beyond their original designs. He tried hand at many careers in space, although he never went flirted with the line of the law. He was haunted by a past of killing 'for the good of the people', that continued to give him nightmares. He knew he had to redeem himself by being a good a person as he could.

Within a few years, he amassed enough funds to purchase an Asp Explorer. He kitted her out as an Iron-Ass with a distinct explorer theme. He nicknamed her Vagabond and the christening stuck. He rigged the ship to work with only himself as a crew person.

de Havilland finally had a ship which could hold its own against the ravages of the ragged fringe of human space. He had time, space and a ship. He had everything he needed.

Two to Tango

When it came to combat, this automation systems became noticably lacking. He also came to miss human contact that he had been shunning since he left AAAI for space. It was time to find a co-pilot.

He found Michael Veruz in some two-bit dump that claimed to be an Imperial Colony on the southern frontier. The young man had spunk and attitude, something Vasquith once had himself. Michael's youthful exuberance was infectious, and de Havilland hired him. The two made a good team, but protective as he was, Vasquith rarely allowed Michael to pilot, focusing him on weapons and ancilliary controls.

They kept a low profile as they explored the wilderness of space, clocking up numerous kills. As a two pilot ship, the Galactic Federation of Pilots split the kills between them. Vasquith was up to this third 'Right on Commander' message, while Veruz was on one, both of them a ranking of Competent, when a routine trip through an empty system turned out to be something completely different...

The Return of the Azure Sunset

A hermit hired de Havilland to search through an empty system for his missing mining system. de Havilland and Veruz spent half a day searching the system before the stumbled upon a derelict Long Range Cruiser. But it was not just any LRC. It was the Azure Sunset.

de Havilland took the Vagabond in for a closer look and was ambushed by a group of elite pilots in one mand starships of unknown design. de Havilland blasted a hole in the side of the Azure Sunset and flew into the ship, fleeing into the habitable zones. The pilots followed and a game of cat and mouse ensued. In the pandemonium that followed, de Havilland and Veruz managed to download that random hyperjump matrix from the onboard computer, allowing them to predict where it would jump to next. They escaped in a daring hyperspace manoeuvre.

They fled to Alioth where they met up with de Havilland's old work friends at AAAI. Kane Scott loaned de Havilland an experimental Saker Mk III carrying the Nano Plasma Accelerator.

What followed was a series of events which left them tagging along with the most infamous criminal in history: Norman Mosser. Together with Mossers sidekick, Sam, they reboarded the Azure Sunset to find it occupied by the leader of the Spartacus Brotherhood. A power struggle ensued with Norman the victor. The Federation and Imperial Navies were notified of where the Azure Sunset was laying low for repairs and together they surrounded and attacked the wounded ship.

The Azure Sunset was able to escape the battle, but she was mortally wounded in the process.

This story is still active. For more information, see The Huge Plasma Accelerator 2 and The Huge Plasma Accelerator 3

Links

• Jack Hamtilon