Character: Salamane Amberston
A Smoking Man/Mr. X/Deep-Throat character that I created.
Life obsessed with secrets and revenge.
Salamane Amberston was born 34 T-years ago on a Near Colony world owned and run by Networld, to Clive and Andrea Amberston. Clive Amberston, a Centauran human manufacturing engineer with a life contract with Networld, met his wife in the workplace. Andrea Grimos, a Pachan scientist, worked closely with Clive for several years before they became close. Despite the ongoing prejudice between their races, they married. They had six total children, ending with Salamane.
Sal had two brothers and three sisters – the eldest sibling was his brother Jase , followed by his sister Rachel, followed by his brother Calen. The next child was another sister, Vanessa, followed by the final sister Joanna. They all grew up close, going to the good Networld schools, some later joining the Fleet academy.
Bregash-4, a Near Colony world primarily owned by Networld, was the site of a major manufacturing plant for rare raw ores used in Q-Drive manufacturing. Fleet had a significant outpost on the world, including a small academy campus. Throughout his childhood, Salamane had much contact with Fleet. Unfortunately, his first was at a time when he was too young to realize. Not long after his birth, his mother was murdered by a drunk Fleet Marine. It was ruled as a racially motivated murder and the Marine was reprimanded.
Tragedy never left Sal alone. Later in his childhood, the plant his father worked at was destroyed by a saboteurs bomb. This explosion killed several hundred workers, severely injuring his father. When he got older, Sal’s father told him that this was no terrorist attack as it was ruled, and he had the evidence locked away in an old cyberdeck, which he later gave to Sal. Sal then found the secret that started his quest. The data showed that Networld and Fleet knew about the explosion weeks ahead of time. In fact, it was planned by both parties, as part of a contract penalty clause. Networld violated the contract, and as part of the penalty, Networld had to choose which plant they would loose at the hands of Fleets highly trained covert special forces. His father told him to never reveal this to anyone, until it was time…” use it to avenge your mother’s death.”
Later in his childhood, he received a strange gift on a birthday. It came in a box, with a label reading only his name, and one phrase… “Remember the true honor of Fleet.” Inside was an antique Fleet insignia pin, dating back to the early days of Fleet. This helped him further realize his quest.
As he grew older, further into adolescence, he developed an interest in stories and gossip. In middle school, he was the one the kids came to for cheat sheets and answers to pop quizzes. He would gladly give the information to anyone who asked, but for a cost… not lunch money, not allowance, but favors. Everyone ended up owing Sal something in the end, and Sal had enough on them that they wouldn’t dare tell. The feeling of power over someone when all you had was information was invigorating to Sal.
It was early in this adolescence that Sal was hit with another tragedy. At a family reunion, a drunk relative severely beat Sal, nearly to death, for wearing the antique Fleet pin. He was saved by a neighbor, a Fleet officer, who charged the relative and sent him off to jail. Sal never saw that relative again, and only heard rumors that he was sent to a Fleet hard labor camp, and is still alive today. The Fleet officer, Douglas Hardwic Ramas, later became a close friend, telling him grand stories of secret Fleet missions, and information that would have gotten him killed if his superiors knew. What was he worried about, it was just a child. What he didn’t realize was Sal was no ordinary child… he was a developing information broker.
After high school, Sal chose to enlist in the Fleet academy, at the encouragement of what he considered his second father, Douglas Ramas. He excelled rather quickly, and got noticed by his superiors. They realized his talents, and enrolled him in special services in Fleet Intel Academy. This only fed his hunger for more secrets, but dulled his morality. People began to mean nothing more than storage for information. Before it got too bad, just after graduation, he fell in love, and some of his morality and respect for life returned. However, not for long. His fiancee, Christina Felicity Tasker, on their wedding day, was assassinated by a former colleague of Sal’s, because of information Sal had on him. The bullet was meant for Sal. The assassin got away. As she died, he felt himself almost not caring, because she hid nothing from him and had no secrets to tell. Sal swore never to get that close to anyone again.
He was later transferred to a remote colony, not unlike his homeworld. The thought was it might calm him, and prevent a “loose cannon” situation. Besides, many of his superiors owed Sal and if Sal was to open up with his secrets, they didn’t want him near the Core. So they put him in a place where he could be less damaging.
The world was called Flistongen, a small manufacturing cerenium-rich world, owned by Fleet Corp. He worked as an Intel observer, but was not welcomed with open arms. There were several attempts on his life that were ruled as locals-unfriendly feeling towards Intel. Orders came down after a year on this world that he would obey the Fleet HQ Commander Chester Gundsig’s orders, whatever they are, and help evacuate Flistongen. Flistongen had a large compliment of Fleet marines and naval personnel, as well as a large population of contracted scientists, engineers, and other civillian personnel running several large ship construction sites, all numbering to just under a million.
Sal was never given an explanation, so he dug for one. Hidden, under a lot of encryption, in a data shredder queue was his explanation. Through a number of retina-forgeries, fake signatures, and several overlooked regulations, Commander Gundsig allowed a few renegade Fleet scientists to tinker with Q-Space technology, in combination with some unlisted alien tech. The result was a serious industrial accident that was swiftly eating away at the planets atmosphere. This would soon leave the planet a dead world. The time for total destruction did not leave enough time to evacuate all the colonists. He queried further on this note, and found that Gundsig had selectively chosen only a small percentage of the population to be evecuated, covered up the accident from all the rest, and planned to leave the large
percentage to their fate. This data he stored, remembering his father’s words. Feeling no better than Gundsig, but realizing time was his enemy, he followed orders, and swore to the honor of those who died that the corruption that caused their deaths would be purged and the “true honor of Fleet” would
be restored…
Salamane Amberston’s Siblings.
Sibling #1 – Brother – Jase Amberston – Currently a professional gambler, known to be very cocky, and self-confident. Only Salamane knows that he uses a alien-tech personal cloaking device to cheat at cards. He also somewhat religious about “Lady Luck”.
Sibling #2 – Sister – Rachel Amberston – Networld sales exec, carrying on the family contract with Networld. She is a large muscular woman with an unusually strong bone structure… “almost like steel”, one med-tech was quoted.
Sibling #3 – Brother – Calen Amberston – Fleet Naval Officer. Like Salamane, developed a strong network of contacts, but unlike Salamane, he used his good charm to develop it and can call them good friends, and even family. Very good natured and strangely, good things happen to him and those around him quite often.
Sibling #4 – Sister – Vanessa Amberston – Private Detective. She was blamed for a local crime bosses assassination, and is wanted dead by that crime gang and its allies.
Sibling #5 – Sister – Joanna Amberston – Fleet Naval Pilot. Was involved in Fleet combat actions near the zone, some of which she won’t even tell Sal.
SALMANE AMBERSTON / FLEET INTEL AGENT
Species: Pachan/Human cross breed. Height: 6’2” Age: 34 T years
Sex: Male
Attributes: (As of 3/18/96)
AGL: 7
Dodge 2/9, Melee Combat 1/8, Stealth 2/9
DEX: 7
Fire Combat 1/8 (Pistols 4/11), Lock Picking 1/8, Thrown Weapons(Grenades
2/9), Veh. Piloting: Starship 1/8
END: 7
Resist Pain 1/8
STR: 7
INT: 8
Computer Ops 1/9, Cyberdeck Ops 1/9, Linguistics 1/9, Scholar: Fleet Regs
1/9, Perception 1/9 (Find 2/10)
MIN: 9
CON: 7
Interrogation 1/8, Willpower 1/8
CHA: 6
TOU: 7
Armor: Plastovar (+5/21) over Syntheleather Mesh (+4/19)
Weapons: 6 HE greandes, Brodie Vengeance, Furtherman HA Rifle, Ion Dagger.
Background advantages:
2 pts – Latents Psi
5 pts – Secrets – many deep and dark Fleet secrets collected through the years. Will honor those who died for these secrets at all costs, until the time has come to avenge his mother’s death.
3 pts – Ship (Fleet comissioned).
Background compensations:
2 pts – Bigotry – vs Terran-born humans, general hatred to the way most treat the Pachan. Will not act on unless obvious hatred toward the Pachan is shown by any terran human.
2 pts – Pursuit – those who would prefer to see me dead, or those who want the information. They are throughout Fleet Intel and Fleet Sec.
2 pts – Enemy – Fleet base commander from Flistongen, Commander Gunsig, and the assassin of his fiancee.
1 pt – Minor Stigma -.When a near-death individual is encoutered, it is his habit to interrogate to individual, to draw out any secrets he may want to pass on. They have nothing to loose. He views most sapients as simply cells of information, and tries to draw that information out before they die. If theydie without passing on any information, they were a wasted cell.
4 pt – Code of Honor – Feels strongly about those who died to get him the information he holds, and will not dishonor their deaths, at all costs. He will never kill unnecessarily, will always try to mame to near death and interrogate.
Cyberwear: Simenerve and Neural Jack – CV: 3
Other Equipment: Credkey, Comlink, Fleet ID.
Notes: Currently have 7 Life Points, but they will be spent, at least 4 to 5 of them for skills.