
Captain Jace Stratton
Biological Information:
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Height: 5’ 11”
Weight: 162 lbs
Age: 29
Homeworld: None
Backstory:
Jace was born in deep space, on a ship known as the Trader’s Luck, a small 5 crew light freighter. His mother was a dealer and smuggler of a drug known to create intense waves of bliss and sexual ecstasy named Rapture. It was strictly prohibited by the laws of the C.U.P., but Nyklis Stratton believed that the law was wrong, made illegal because of a religious dogma which she didn’t share. To her, Rapture was a pleasant and recreational drug and thus, should be made available to all. She made a large fortune smuggling Rapture, but was not very responsible financially, often gambling and drinking her money away. Eventually she got pregnant during a long stay over in the Tangiers system’s worm hole portal city called Celeste and a one night stand involving a man half her age. For a few months while pregnant, she took legal jobs, thereby qualifying her for healthcare privileges afforded to citizens of the Coalition.
Nyklis continued her career in illegal smuggling after Jace was born, taking him with her during her smuggling missions. He was educated by his mother, and the computers on the Trader’s Luck, and the rotating crew Nyklis would hire for runs. Jace learned piloting from his mother, smuggling, how to avoid security patrols both on the portal cities and in intergalactic trade ways. He also became quite adapt to fixing the computer systems of the aging Trader’s Luck, modifying them for far more superior output. Jace visited many planets with his mother and her crew, learning of different cultures and making friends, acquaintances, and earning the hate of many of his mother’s enemies.
When Jace was 11, on the portal city of CoreSec, Nyklis was arrested by the Coalition
police force. Jace never saw her
again. Nyklis’ old crew stole the Trader’s
Luck, leaving Jace on his own. Nyklis
had an old acquaintance named Garth Pawling who owned the local junk yard,
which Jace convinced to hire him. Garth
was old, his own sons having left decades before, and though he was done acting
like a father figure, he didn’t mistreat Jace, only treated him as a competent
worker. Jace worked in the yard for
years, learning how to fix ships and fusion reactors on the cheap and selling
them for a huge profit. Quite a few
times, he was asked to modify fusion reactors, weapons, and shields illegally
against Coalition regulations. At 17 he
was arrested for this, and was sent to the Ribard S Correctional
Center,
where he met Riddick. Jace spent two
years in the institutions and was used by the Correctional Center to repair many
of the ships and facility computers and hard ware around the Center, but was in
constant danger of being taken advantage of by the larger, older inmates. His first encounter with Riddick came when Jace
was beaten into near unconsciousness by five inmates who were attempting to
rape him. Riddick saved Jace, killing
the five men in the process. Riddick
said Jace owed him. It later became
clear why Riddick had saved Jace. Jace was the only inmate in the facility with
access to the ship yards and security codes.
Riddick used this to his advantage, escaping in one of the facility’s
only space freighters with Jace aboard.
Riddick dropped him on the planet Halla IV, a technological planet that
was a hub world for the space lanes transportation with its own worm
portal. It naturally drew a large
population of pirates, smugglers, and criminals.
Halla IV turned out to be a perfect place for Jace to thrive. In two years he worked in the junk yard and did illegal modifications for many high paying clients who worked the lanes as smugglers. Soon, he helped with those smuggles, earning his own private 5 crew freighter he christened the Silverbane , which, instead of a crew, he bought several droids to take responsibilities of a human crew. It meant more work, but he didn’t have to share or split his fees, and he wasn’t the most trusting person in the Galaxy anyway. Though, officially Jace has no rank recognized by the Coalition or Company records since he never went to the Coalition of United Planets academy or any of the Company’s space aviation academy’s , he began to call himself captain to impress potential clients, and went as far as to forge papers for security portals that referred to himself as a Captain. For five years Jace became a regular for the highest paying criminal organizations in the black market to smuggle drugs, illegal technology, even political opponents of the Company and the Coalition. It was during one of his runs that he encountered the Star’s Necrosis.
The ship was adrift on the outer rims of the system, abandoned by its crew with only a few droids still programmed to perform maintenance, and most of those were beginning to malfunction after decades of neglect in space. The ship was a hulking corvette class battle ship from Earth before it joined the Coalition, which made these types of ships illegal. Jace never learned why it was abandoned, though he suspected it had to do with two damaged fusion reactors which were extremely unstable. It took years and a small fortune for Jace, working on the ship between smuggling runs, to get the ship functioning enough to actually make it back to a space dock known to look the other way when it came to illegal ships. Repairs took more years, even with Jace hiring a competent mech crew, but eventually the Star’s Necrosis was reconstructed, its major systems updated and modified.
With the Star’s Necrosis becoming functional, Captain Stratton became more daring with his smuggling runs, earning a reputation of taking the riskiest and most dangerous jobs, for the highest price of course, and always coming through. Huge bounties by both the Company (a privately owned corporation that specializes in everything from creating ships, to private planet wide security, to building prisons and weapons) and the Coalition of United Planets. He and his crew were even involved in several trade ship hijackings. While most were successful without anyone getting hurt, and though Jace personally hates killing, in order to protect himself, his crew, and his ship, bloodshed was sometimes necessary.
Personality:
Jace Stratton has become known for his dry wit and sarcasm, as well as his cockiness. He’ll tell anyone just how good he is whenever the opportunity arises, though he does have an easy going charm about him, and good looks. He is known to be inventive and quick thinking, and often comes up with ‘unorthodox’ solutions to various problems encountered. He is rarely judgmental, a trait he learned from his mother. Though he has many friends (and quite a few lovers) on the space routes, he only has a small group of people he trusts, that being most of his crew. He keeps that group as small as possible however, buying droids to do most of the inane tasks required to keep a spacecraft functioning throughout its journey in deep space. Though it usually takes a crew of 70 to 76 crewmembers to run a Corvette class ship properly, Stratton keeps the crew down to a sparse 45. This has been a source of frustration sometimes for Stratton’s crew, as it increases their responsibility and workload on smuggling runs, but it also lines their pockets more fully since there is less money to split. As a Captain, Jace rarely relies on authority in his command, but on quick thinking and the trust his crew has in him. Jace has an affinity for drinking and gambling, though he stays away from spices and drugs such as Rapture.
Character Appearance and Characteristics:
Jace keeps in shape through physical and cardio training. He has no formal hand to hand combat training, having only gleaned enough from watching illegal fighting bouts, but is a formable fighter. He has no discerning scars or tattoos. Imbibes in both smoking and drinking. Jace usually keeps his hair sort, dressing in fashionable attire except for a rare, antiquated brown, leather jacket from Earth.
Weapons:
Jace usually has a hand weapon, a DL-44 blaster pistol, which is attached to a holster on his belt and leg. However, while he is not a very good shot with the pistol, he does have a particular talent


