| Hannah Qin grew up on the core world of Shinon but was never comfortable there. While others were happy to live the civilized life, she always felt the need for grand adventure. When she was twelve, Hannah was chosen to join the Companions Guild. For a brief while the life of a companion in training helped feed her craving for the new and exciting but it quickly became boring. Two years later she left the guild. Hannah lied about her age to join a "private security firm" that operated out on the rim, solving problems for the highest bidder. She proved to be an excellent "security specialist" and earned plenty of bonuses. After fifteen years she had enough money saved to buy her own ship. Hannah bought the King of Hell and started her own little company.
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| Roy Wood was a soldier. One of the best. During the War of Unification he was Alliance special forces. That meant he was smarter, tougher, and deadlier than ninety-nine percent of the military. He believed in what he was fighting for with all his heart. He was fighting for his wife and child, after all. They lived on Shadow, a place more or less neutral during the war. Some people from Shadow fought for the Independents. Some fought for the Alliance. The rest stayed at home and kept Shadow doing what Shadow did best: producing food. Then the disaster happened. The official explanation was that an incurable crop blight made it imperative that Shadow had to be fire-bombed into oblivion. They evacuated most of the population but some refused to go. Those who remained believed that the Alliance wouldn't go through with the operation while people lived on the surface. They were wrong. Roy Wood lost his wife, his child, and his purpose for living that day. He went AWOL and started wandering. He eventually ended up aboard the King of Hell where his skills have a use.
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| Brooke doesn't remember her past. She doesn't even remember her own name. Hannah named her Brooke after coming across her in the middle of the woods. Brooke was naked and succumbing to hypothermia. Hannah nursed Brooke back to health aboard the King of Hell. It turned out Brooke wasn't just an idle passenger, either. She proved to be a wizard with computers and, perhaps more importantly, her empathy and intuition bordered on the supernaturally uncanny. Last year Brooke and Hannah married in a small ceremony on Paquin.
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| Some people are driven to adventure. Others come to it through tragedy. Still others through mystery. Some folks, however, are just born mean sons of bitches. Jacob DeCourt's that kind of guy. He was born on Athens. He got into a lot of trouble as a kid. Eventually, he went to work for a man named Niska. The work was good. Pay was better. But it wasn't satisfying. Niska was a sadist and Jacob wasn't. Jacob loved violence but he loved it because it was violent and messy and loud. Not because people got hurt. That was just a side-effect. Jacob slipped off quietly, earning Niska's wrath, and signed up with the King of Hell. He's a living weapon in many ways. Hannah points, he shoots. He likes it that way.
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