Adrian Speers

He'd been saving his money for some time, hoping to buy something sleek, fast, that handled like a dream. It was a few months ago he'd discovered the inside line on a big tug of a ship, not what he was looking for at all. It handled like a barge, and its cross section was huge, making it an easy target for smaller, more nible ships. It was a death-trap, actually, its only redeeming quality was the advanced energy ball generator sitting in the ventral quadrant of the ship. The thing packed a punch, more than many capital ship weapons, and Adrian had to make a few quick mental calculations. No record existed of the ship's production, it wasn't even supposed to exist, but he could claim it by doing a favor and spending almost all his savings. If war broke out, it could be very valuable. Well, war broke out, and nobody wanted to buy it. So Adrian did what any self-respecting pilot would do. He added maneuvering thrusters to give himself a chance in a dogfight, picked up a couple of crewmates, and set out to fly as an independent contractor. A funny thing happened on the way to the life of a smuggler, however; he was signed up to defend the Republic against the Separatists. Nothing came close to the credits they could pay, and he figured with the amount of damage that monstrous gun could do, he might be able to take out a blockade runner or something similar. The he could justify a sizable bonus, assuming he survived...

The call went up for pilots to assemble, and his heart skipped a beat. This was it, do or die. He meandered over to the assembly area and glanced around at the competition, so to speak. It was habit, formed from his racing days. Actually... that pilot looked kind of familiar...