about; history and personality
Dec. 25th, 2014 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bountyhuntHistory:
Life in space is hard and it's even harder for humans, who are relatively new to the galactic community that has existed for eons before they'd even began shaping themselves stone tools. It's tradition in the greater galactic community to assert themselves over and even conquer lesser, newer races, and that is exactly what has happened to the humans under the rule of the more senior races in outer space.
Humans lost their planet only a few hundred years back (c. A.D. 2400) to war, pollution, and global climate change. Earth is all but unlivable, except in a few places. Most humans went to the stars, using their new technology able to open wormholes big enough to transport large arks and smaller ships alike to new star systems and hoping to find a new home.
The thing is, most habitable planets were already inhabited. There were rules humans had to follow, laws that governed the galaxy. Break those rules, and they risked becoming an endangered species, and without the power and clout they needed to have much of a say in the laws, human beings were made into second class citizens, along with a handful of other races who lacked power and influence. For the most part they were allowed to exist, but they could not settle in one place too long. Planets and moons were off limits and regulated by a passport system -- humans could apply for visas to live and work there, but they had no homes where they were completely welcome, aside from their arks, which developed into travelling cities, some containing up to a quarter million humans.
Without planets or moons to settle on, population control aboard human ark ships became important. Only some people were allowed to have children, and it was determined that only those with the strongest genes free of disease could breed, in the interests of making humanity stronger. Most races in the galaxy had embraced genetic engineering to make themselves better but humanity lacked the resources to embark upon such an endeavor. Being a race of refugees, they had to try to make their race better through old-fashioned breeding. It was slow, but over four hundred years they reached a point where most humans are stronger than they were in the past. They could see better, hear better, heal faster, and did not suffer from diseases such as cancer, asthma, anemia, or heart disease. Humans began living lives with a life expectancy of 150 and beyond, however they gave up a lot to manage this. They gave up a large part of their culture: the institution of marriage and even family.
Lisbeth was born on the ark ship Expedition, a mid-sized ark of about 35,000 people. While she was aware of who her parents were, her relationship with them was virtually nonexistent. She had inherited her father's last name, as was the old earth tradition, and her mother was allowed to choose her first and middle names, but those were the only gifts she got from her parents aside from her life. Her mother gave birth to her, and soon after the ark's administration took her baby from her and she was raised along with the other children of the ark, not as part of a family but part of a community. There she learned the two main languages of the ark, English and Spanish. Other arks, depending on their country of origin back in the days of earth, might have other primary languages and bloodlines -- Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, etc, and a few children were tasked with learning these so communication between ships was possible, but not all had to learn them. Schooling also included math, science, history, and basic combat training as well as mechanical training.
Even with strict population control and strict breeding practices, the humans on Lisbeth's ark were struggling to feed themselves and maintain their society. When the alien corporation, Sojja, came for a diplomatic visit when Lisbeth was twelve, they convinced the ark's administration that it would be in their best interests to "give" them a handful of young people every decade or so. Sojja would give the children a good life, ensure their survival, train them, and alter them with cybernetics. In return, the ark they hailed from would be paid enough that they could properly maintain themselves.
Lisbeth was randomly chosen for this program, and even though she was against going, she was forced into it and manipulated with trite lines like, "You are the future of the human race" and "Do this for your people". In the end, she didn't go kicking and screaming, but she did leave angry and feeling betrayed, and she kept that anger and betrayal, stewing in it for much of the rest of her life. Dozens of other children were also taken, and most of them she never saw again.
Upon her arrival at their space station base light-years away, it was clear from the start that Sojja Corp would not treat her well. She was treated with the same respect one might treat a test subject, a small detail the corporation hadn't shared with the humans on the ark before they gave them their children. She lived in a prison-like setting for years, most of her days and nights spent in a small enclosed cell. When she wasn't in her cell, she was being trained or tested upon or operated upon. Most of the operations to install her cybernetics occurred when Lisbeth was younger, between the ages of 12-15, but they often had to be altered and upgraded so surgeries every few months on existing cybernetics were common.
Lisbeth was outfitted with artificial eyes that could see further and clearer than human eyes, a reinforced spine, arms and legs that were reinforced and better able to lift and run, lungs that could process oxygen more efficiently, and a heart that pumped stronger and more efficiently. She was also implanted with a chip in her brain, which allowed her to access orders and information directly from Sojja, and through that chip they exerted a kind of mind control over her, keeping her compliant but unable to erase her anger and pain over being subjected to these upgrades and forced to do the bidding of a corporation she held no love for.
Lisbeth knew what her purpose was, not because anyone had explained it to her, because they hadn't -- in fact, interaction with her captors was limited to instructions only, and that ended up stunting her socially so that many future social interactions with people were a bit lacking and awkward at best. She knew her purpose through putting one and two and three together: she was being shaped in to a super soldier, a mercenary built and owned by Sojja Corp. She was taught by them advanced combat with and without arms, piloting and advanced mechanics and computer science. She was rewarded with luxuries such as entertainment, music, books, and good food when she did well, and when she did not or when she purposely did badly, they would subject her to torture via electric shock and turn on the chip in her head to a higher level, numbing her brain and ensuring she remained compliant with Sojja's wishes in the future.
Thankfully, this form of control was relaxed the more compliant she was. Lisbeth learned fairly early on to appear to do as they wished. By the age of eighteen, she was cleared by the higher ups for combat, and began serving as a mercenary and assassin. Her specialty was long range sniping, and she was used both as an assassin as well as support to front line fighters in small turf wars for years.
At age 21 while out on a assassination job with her alien partner and pilot, Zeni, Lisbeth realized she felt strange. The chip in her brain was malfunctioning, switching itself on and off, flickering in and out. While it was off, her head felt clearer and she felt more present and free than she'd felt in years. Soon the chip stopped flickering altogether. It simply stopped working. While she had no idea why it had malfunctioned, she knew she couldn't just do as Sojja asked of her and assassinate her target only to return and have them repair or replace the chip. She had to get the hell out, and fuck what Sojja thought about that because they hadn't given a shit what she'd thought of the past 9 years she'd spent in their custody.
She knew how to pilot their ship, though arguably her partner Zeni was better at it. That didn't matter, though. She didn't hesitate, and at her earliest convenience she killed Zeni, dumping their body out the airlock. She landed on the moon her target was said to be on, because she couldn't go anywhere else with the Sojja-sponsored visa she held. Carefully and quickly, Lisbeth obtained new papers and passport and assumed a new false identity unconnected to Sojja, paying for it with the help of selling her nicely outfitted Sojja Corp ship. She kept most of her weapons and modified her armor, making it mostly indistinguishable from Sojja's, and with the remaining money she had purchased a small ship of her own to make her getaway.
Even though she was operating under the name Lis Reyes, as her new passport stated, Lisbeth still thought of herself by her given name. It was the only thing she still had that connected her to the ark she'd left as a child, which was the only place she'd known where she'd ever been remotely happy or free. Now, finding herself free again but still unhappy, Lisbeth contented herself with travelling the galaxy, turning in bounties to make a living, and avoiding other bounty hunters, killing the few who managed to track her down over the years.
Now 33 years old, Lisbeth has spent more time free of Sojja than she'd spent with them, but the scars of her experience as a teenager and young adult still haunt her. Her old life sticks with her, casting a dark shadow over everything she does and leaving her paranoid. She still has a considerable bounty on her head, which only grows with time. It's only a matter of time before she's caught off-guard and forced back into servitude for Sojja Corp. The only way to prevent that is to take Sojja down, but Lisbeth has no idea where to start with that.
Life in space is hard and it's even harder for humans, who are relatively new to the galactic community that has existed for eons before they'd even began shaping themselves stone tools. It's tradition in the greater galactic community to assert themselves over and even conquer lesser, newer races, and that is exactly what has happened to the humans under the rule of the more senior races in outer space.
Humans lost their planet only a few hundred years back (c. A.D. 2400) to war, pollution, and global climate change. Earth is all but unlivable, except in a few places. Most humans went to the stars, using their new technology able to open wormholes big enough to transport large arks and smaller ships alike to new star systems and hoping to find a new home.
The thing is, most habitable planets were already inhabited. There were rules humans had to follow, laws that governed the galaxy. Break those rules, and they risked becoming an endangered species, and without the power and clout they needed to have much of a say in the laws, human beings were made into second class citizens, along with a handful of other races who lacked power and influence. For the most part they were allowed to exist, but they could not settle in one place too long. Planets and moons were off limits and regulated by a passport system -- humans could apply for visas to live and work there, but they had no homes where they were completely welcome, aside from their arks, which developed into travelling cities, some containing up to a quarter million humans.
Without planets or moons to settle on, population control aboard human ark ships became important. Only some people were allowed to have children, and it was determined that only those with the strongest genes free of disease could breed, in the interests of making humanity stronger. Most races in the galaxy had embraced genetic engineering to make themselves better but humanity lacked the resources to embark upon such an endeavor. Being a race of refugees, they had to try to make their race better through old-fashioned breeding. It was slow, but over four hundred years they reached a point where most humans are stronger than they were in the past. They could see better, hear better, heal faster, and did not suffer from diseases such as cancer, asthma, anemia, or heart disease. Humans began living lives with a life expectancy of 150 and beyond, however they gave up a lot to manage this. They gave up a large part of their culture: the institution of marriage and even family.
Lisbeth was born on the ark ship Expedition, a mid-sized ark of about 35,000 people. While she was aware of who her parents were, her relationship with them was virtually nonexistent. She had inherited her father's last name, as was the old earth tradition, and her mother was allowed to choose her first and middle names, but those were the only gifts she got from her parents aside from her life. Her mother gave birth to her, and soon after the ark's administration took her baby from her and she was raised along with the other children of the ark, not as part of a family but part of a community. There she learned the two main languages of the ark, English and Spanish. Other arks, depending on their country of origin back in the days of earth, might have other primary languages and bloodlines -- Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, etc, and a few children were tasked with learning these so communication between ships was possible, but not all had to learn them. Schooling also included math, science, history, and basic combat training as well as mechanical training.
Even with strict population control and strict breeding practices, the humans on Lisbeth's ark were struggling to feed themselves and maintain their society. When the alien corporation, Sojja, came for a diplomatic visit when Lisbeth was twelve, they convinced the ark's administration that it would be in their best interests to "give" them a handful of young people every decade or so. Sojja would give the children a good life, ensure their survival, train them, and alter them with cybernetics. In return, the ark they hailed from would be paid enough that they could properly maintain themselves.
Lisbeth was randomly chosen for this program, and even though she was against going, she was forced into it and manipulated with trite lines like, "You are the future of the human race" and "Do this for your people". In the end, she didn't go kicking and screaming, but she did leave angry and feeling betrayed, and she kept that anger and betrayal, stewing in it for much of the rest of her life. Dozens of other children were also taken, and most of them she never saw again.
Upon her arrival at their space station base light-years away, it was clear from the start that Sojja Corp would not treat her well. She was treated with the same respect one might treat a test subject, a small detail the corporation hadn't shared with the humans on the ark before they gave them their children. She lived in a prison-like setting for years, most of her days and nights spent in a small enclosed cell. When she wasn't in her cell, she was being trained or tested upon or operated upon. Most of the operations to install her cybernetics occurred when Lisbeth was younger, between the ages of 12-15, but they often had to be altered and upgraded so surgeries every few months on existing cybernetics were common.
Lisbeth was outfitted with artificial eyes that could see further and clearer than human eyes, a reinforced spine, arms and legs that were reinforced and better able to lift and run, lungs that could process oxygen more efficiently, and a heart that pumped stronger and more efficiently. She was also implanted with a chip in her brain, which allowed her to access orders and information directly from Sojja, and through that chip they exerted a kind of mind control over her, keeping her compliant but unable to erase her anger and pain over being subjected to these upgrades and forced to do the bidding of a corporation she held no love for.
Lisbeth knew what her purpose was, not because anyone had explained it to her, because they hadn't -- in fact, interaction with her captors was limited to instructions only, and that ended up stunting her socially so that many future social interactions with people were a bit lacking and awkward at best. She knew her purpose through putting one and two and three together: she was being shaped in to a super soldier, a mercenary built and owned by Sojja Corp. She was taught by them advanced combat with and without arms, piloting and advanced mechanics and computer science. She was rewarded with luxuries such as entertainment, music, books, and good food when she did well, and when she did not or when she purposely did badly, they would subject her to torture via electric shock and turn on the chip in her head to a higher level, numbing her brain and ensuring she remained compliant with Sojja's wishes in the future.
Thankfully, this form of control was relaxed the more compliant she was. Lisbeth learned fairly early on to appear to do as they wished. By the age of eighteen, she was cleared by the higher ups for combat, and began serving as a mercenary and assassin. Her specialty was long range sniping, and she was used both as an assassin as well as support to front line fighters in small turf wars for years.
At age 21 while out on a assassination job with her alien partner and pilot, Zeni, Lisbeth realized she felt strange. The chip in her brain was malfunctioning, switching itself on and off, flickering in and out. While it was off, her head felt clearer and she felt more present and free than she'd felt in years. Soon the chip stopped flickering altogether. It simply stopped working. While she had no idea why it had malfunctioned, she knew she couldn't just do as Sojja asked of her and assassinate her target only to return and have them repair or replace the chip. She had to get the hell out, and fuck what Sojja thought about that because they hadn't given a shit what she'd thought of the past 9 years she'd spent in their custody.
She knew how to pilot their ship, though arguably her partner Zeni was better at it. That didn't matter, though. She didn't hesitate, and at her earliest convenience she killed Zeni, dumping their body out the airlock. She landed on the moon her target was said to be on, because she couldn't go anywhere else with the Sojja-sponsored visa she held. Carefully and quickly, Lisbeth obtained new papers and passport and assumed a new false identity unconnected to Sojja, paying for it with the help of selling her nicely outfitted Sojja Corp ship. She kept most of her weapons and modified her armor, making it mostly indistinguishable from Sojja's, and with the remaining money she had purchased a small ship of her own to make her getaway.
Even though she was operating under the name Lis Reyes, as her new passport stated, Lisbeth still thought of herself by her given name. It was the only thing she still had that connected her to the ark she'd left as a child, which was the only place she'd known where she'd ever been remotely happy or free. Now, finding herself free again but still unhappy, Lisbeth contented herself with travelling the galaxy, turning in bounties to make a living, and avoiding other bounty hunters, killing the few who managed to track her down over the years.
Now 33 years old, Lisbeth has spent more time free of Sojja than she'd spent with them, but the scars of her experience as a teenager and young adult still haunt her. Her old life sticks with her, casting a dark shadow over everything she does and leaving her paranoid. She still has a considerable bounty on her head, which only grows with time. It's only a matter of time before she's caught off-guard and forced back into servitude for Sojja Corp. The only way to prevent that is to take Sojja down, but Lisbeth has no idea where to start with that.
