À l'embarquement de l'Alamo, Valian s'est rendu à son navire pour s'assurer que tout était en forme. Vérifier les commandes, le moteur, les systèmes d'armes, le bouclier et d'autres bouts de finesse qui rendent un navire opérationnel. Normalement le genre de chose que vous voulez faire avant d'être mis dans une situation où vous pourriez avoir besoin de décoller à tout moment, mais Valian s'est vu d'abord, pas comme un employé contractuel de Starfire, mais comme un pilote. C'était une question de fierté pour lui qu'il remarquerait si quelque chose n'allait pas avec son navire. La seule raison pour laquelle il vérifiait c'était parce qu'il avait appris la dure façon que c'est mieux d'être prudent.
À sa grande surprise, Valian avait fini de vérifier ses systèmes avant que quelque chose ne se produise. Elle est restée ainsi, jusqu'à ce que l'un des pilotes des navires décide de passer par un grand astéroïde. Quelle taille? Après avoir pratiquement sauté dans le cockpit de son navire, Valian a tiré quelques photos du flux extérieur de la caméra d'Alamo, et a vu un assez grand pour cacher un navire plus grand que l'Alamo ou la Babylone. Bon, qu'est-ce qui se passe ici? Même si nous essayions d'éviter les trajectoires de vol standard, quel idiot a choisi de passer si près d'un astéroïde aussi grand? Il y a tellement d'espace vide ici... que ce train de pensée est mort dès qu'il a vu le vaisseau qui se cachait derrière. Quand il l'a fait, il n'a pas pu s'empêcher d'entrer dans le rire hystérique. "C'est la chose la plus stupide que j'aie jamais vue!" Son micro était éteint, donc ses coéquipiers n'auraient pas entendu son éclat à moins qu'ils ne passent par le hangar à l'époque—il n'était pas si fort.
Son rire a cessé dès qu'il a entendu les ancres frapper. Le fait que les pirates, à part un bateau de transport stupide, l'ont frappé comme un train de marchandises. Son sourire n'a pas quitté son visage, mais il s'est transformé de l'un des sourires en l'un des malices. "Très bien. Donc, quatre-vingt-dix navires? Ça pourrait être pire. Je me demande combien d'entre eux seront morts avant que cela ne soit fini." Ne perdant plus de temps, Valian a sorti son vaisseau du hangar d'Alamo. Comme les pirates étaient encore à une bonne distance de lui, il a fouetté son navire avec ses nombreux propulseurs RCS pour viser l'une des ancres de l'Alamo avec ses faisceaux d'énergie. Il n'a pas eu l'occasion de voir s'il avait frappé sa marque, mais les pirates étaient arrivés, en particulier un groupe de trois personnes.
Merde, ils sont plus rapides que je ne le pensais. Bien qu'il ait peut-être essayé de se lancer dans une attaque d'opportunité sur les ancres, John avait raison – ils ne le laisseraient pas couper ces ancres. Il a esquivé autour du feu ennemi, et a pris des coups de feu sur ses assaillants, le flash de son arme balistique visible juste sous le nez de Starbolt. Un pirate a pris un coup dans le cockpit – enlevant le pilote et en envoyant le navire en spirale dans le vide – et un autre dans l'aile, le rendant largement inopérant. Privilégier la vitesse sur les boucliers? Intéressant. Peut-être même un modèle. Ça me faciliterait le travail.
Valian a jeté un coup d'œil sur l'ancre sur laquelle il avait tiré, et il a été coupé, les pirates déjà en transit s'écroulant dans le vide. Il regarda vers le porte-pirate, seulement pour voir plus de bateaux se diriger vers lui. Voyons ce que cette flotte de quatre-vingt-huit a de plus de surprises pour moi.
Name: Valian Forsythe
Appearance: Valian is the shape of your average human male, barring his below average height. His hair is dark, and his complexion fair—but you are far less likely to notice any of this than you are his eyes, which are blue. That is to say, that he lacks sclera and his eyes are a solid, pale blue all throughout, barring his pupils—the lack of sclera marking them as prosthetics. If you catch him at a time when he isn’t wearing his flight suit—a dark blue affair with a silver-colored alloy covering the seams at his neck, shoulders, and waist, and a helmet made of the same alloy—you’ll doubtless notice that his right hand is mechanical. His sense of dress is ostentatious, consisting of a mix of purples and blues, including a dark blue waist-length mantle that he is rarely seen without. Occasionally, you’ll catch a glimpse of his grey prosthetic legs at his ankles, as legwear meets footwear.
Race: Human-Cyborg
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Background: Valian had a normal childhood, as they go. His family was of modest means, but made more than well enough to get by. He was born in a settlement on the moon of a gas giant just as it was starting to really expand. His father was a contracted pilot, flying people and cargo that, while not important enough to be afforded their own personal shuttle, still needed to get around. Valian was well-educated growing up, and very sociable. Time passed, and eventually Valian grew to adulthood. Since he had spent all of his young life around pilots—his father and his father’s cohorts, some of whom were fighter pilots—and spacecraft, he had more experience with them than most non-professionals. As such, it was only natural that he took up a job as a career pilot. Specifically, he signed on with the Starfire Company.
His father had run some more illicit flights, so Starfire’s less “moral” jobs were not an issue for him. Over time, this brought him into personal conflict, and he developed what skills he has in combat by necessity. His skill as a pilot led to his continued survival, and no insignificant renown within the company. He stuck by the company even when the odd offer came to turn over to the side of a competitor, seeing it as good business to stick with his path. He didn’t know how right he was.
When Valian was in his late twenties, an act of sabotage in a Starfire hangar severely damaged Valian’s ship and grievously wounded him—costing him his right arm, his legs, and both of his eyes. Valian was not irreplaceable, but he had a few friends on the station’s medical staff, so they began operation. He was outfitted with cybernetic replacements for what he had lost. While there were a few people at the corporate side of Starfire that threw a hissy-fit, he was seen as a beneficial enough asset to be worth the cost. His ship was ultimately unsalvageable, but he was able to pick up the tab on a new one without taking too big of a loan (which has since been paid off). He wouldn’t be alive without the cybernetic work, and he remains staunchly loyal to Starfire because of it—now out of a sense of obligation rather then business sense.
Personality: If there’s one thing that Valian has leaned in his time in this galaxy, it’s that there is nobody more important than whoever has your back. He is loyal to a fault, and will stand by his comrades no matter what. That said, he is rather jaded. While it didn’t have a specific inciting incident, he has lost the belief that there is such a thing as a “good cause.” As he would put it, “While there are people who support a cause out of selflessness or idealism, there are just as many—if not more—who would persue it for their own selfish gain. There is no such thing as a virtuous cause; a cause is only as good as those who pursue it, and any cause will have plenty of pursuers in it for themselves and in it for the cause’s sake.” This, in turn, has made him apathetic towards the conflict between the Xenovian Empire and the Revolutionary Front. In truth, he sees the whole war as rather morbidly comical, due in no small part to his tendency to find the humor in most things.
Gear:

One High-Powered Energy Rifle, capable of the sustained firing of multiple blasts, and continuous fire for short periods of time. (Model: Class-8 Jovian Powered Beam Rifle, manufactured by the Jovus Industries Arms Manufacturing Corporation)
One Cybernetic Arm, capable of more precise movement than organic arms, though of somewhat lesser strength; Right side. Linked Directly into his nervous system, operated without computing technology. (Model: Class-12 Neural-Motive Prosthetic Arm, manufactured by the NMS Corporation)
Two Cybernetic Legs, capable of more precise movement than organic legs, though of somewhat lesser strength. Linked Directly into his nervous system, operated without computing technology. (Model: Class-9 Neural-Motive Prosthetic Legs, manufactured by the NMS Corporation)
Two Cybernetic Eyes, capable of seeing over longer distance in sharper detail and overlaying information in his vision, as in a typical HUD. Linked Directly into his nervous system, operated without computing technology. (Model: Class-23 Neural-Sensory Prosthetic Eyes, manufactured by the NMS Corporation)
A Flight Suit, capable of protecting against radiation exposure and planet-reentry/launch forces when in ships which are ill-equipped to handle such forces on their own. Also capable of defending against individual blasts from most energy weapons—but all but useless against sustained/continuous energy fire, and completely useless against ballistic arms and other non-energy forms of weaponry. (Model: V-Type Kalstein Flight Suit (Blue-Silver), manufactured by the Kalstein-Rothera Corporation)



  

While not possessing the hold size of most other cargo ships, the Agile Variant of the MK-III Stellas Cargo Ship’s lower mass and higher number of Rotation Control System (RCS) Thrusters give it a maneuverability and agility unmatched amongst its ilk. While it came with a pair of low-caliber ballistic repeating guns, Valian replaced them with High Energy Sustained Beam Generators—capable of producing a continuous beam indefinitely so long as the ship is powered—and added a medium caliber ballistic repeating gun just under the nose. Additionally, the ship came with standard shielding technology, which Valian has upgraded.