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OtherSpace: New Journeys
Tachyon's role in official OtherSpace canon begins in March 3003, shortly before the series launched the New Journeys storyline with Arc I: The Ruled Sun.
The Ruled Sun
While the UKT Athena set off in search of Palisade in 3003, Tachyon worked a nine-to-five at the Black & White, earning a modest keep that would put her within easy sight of a variety of names and faces. Among them were the LMS Outcast's engineer Katriel Elohim, legendary rebel Jeff Ryan, and Sivadian Minister of Defense Brian DelMarenno.
Ryan and Elohim would form quick ties with Tachyon, going so far as to invite her into their web of political intrigue as a Watcher. A reluctant Tachyon refused the offer, instead pursuing opportunities with the SVD Hyperion and Minister DelMarenno's interstellar shipping enterprise, Ikeopo Trading. She maintained close ties with Ryan and his group, however, going as far as to shield them from Sivadian authorities in 3004 and assist the Ryan alter-ego David Davenport in the foundation of Phoenix Salvage.
Her status as commanding officer aboard such a prominent superfreighter opened up new doors on a variety of worlds for Tachyon, but none so much as Demaria, where a fast friendship with Imperatrix Snowmist Shadowstalker and comfortable business relations with Bloodclaw Silvereye Paintedheart would guarantee her sanctuary in the rowdy years to come.
A Reckoning of Prophets
In early 3004, tensions would spike between Ikeopo Trading and the Ulbahno Investment Banking Concern following a catastrophe on the frozen Ydahri moon of Brrahlo which resulted in the deaths of several Ydahri and G'ahnli scientists. Fearing wrongful imprisonment, Tachyon and the Hyperion fled the planet, abandoning the newly-returned Athena crew to the G'ahnlese authorities. The subsequent seizure of the Athena as collateral in the impending case kicked off a fierce and bitter rivalry between Captains Tachyon and Ranix that would span several years.
Relationships with another Ungstiri captain would become strained, as well. Katya Innokentevna, Ungstir-Two's ambassador to OATO and CEO of joint venture Kipling Biologic and Syeryloshat Transport, was one of Tachyon's earliest and most reliable business contacts. Having secured a private contract with the High Priestess of the Parallax, Antaz of Hatch Vril, to locate the missing ashes of the Naliese goddess Nalia, Tachyon turned to Innokentevna and the Gray Horse crew for assistance. What followed was a conspiracy that would rocket her into the spotlight for the first, but certainly not the last, time.
The Tomin Sirocco Job
With the assistance of Syeryloshat's security specialist, one Kittianna Trevelyan, the Gray Horse and Hyperion were able to pinpoint the missing ashes as having crossed the hands of former Nallistan Volari. Armed with that knowledge, the two crews set out for Phyrria, where Hyperion medical officer YS-1967C learned Volari's last known location from information stored in the Overmind's databanks. This exchange, while immediately useful, unknowingly triggered a rogue process which would prove disastrous for the galaxy within a matter of years.
As Trevelyan continued to pump her contacts, and Elohim sought psionic contact with Volari, Tachyon grew wary of Innokentevna's controlling nature. Worried, she shared her concerns with the crew of the UKT Faux, who agreed to act as a safety net in exchange for information. Tachyon agreed, laying the first foundation of trust that would eventually become a powerhouse partnership.
The moment of truth proved to be an infiltration of the Above Nature facilities on Tomin Sirocco, where it was believed that Volari had commissioned Dr. Lester Haskins to clone Nalia using the DNA from the ashes. Tachyon, Elohim, and Trevelyan, each in disguise and bugged with high-frequency wiretaps, sabotaged the project over the course of several weeks and stole the infant Nalia. Volari was shot multiple times by Tachyon during their escape, but survived.
What followed was a media storm like none other. As both Haskins and the Nall openly levied threats against the saboteurs, the Gray Horse and Hyperion warred over the fate of the ill-begotten goddess. Tachyon's stance was to destroy it and simply deliver the ashes as promised; Innokentevna ignored her and brought the clone to the High Priestess, placating the Nall only long enough for the new Vox to win support for renewed intergalactic conquest.
Tachyon and her First Officer, Torr Peredus, were terminated from Ikeopo Trading by Minister DelMarenno for their part in the episode. Her friendship with Innokentevna ended on a sour note of betrayal, never to be restored. And more importantly, the Birthright War had begun.
Birthright
Homeless, jobless, and mistrusted by the entire galaxy, Tachyon turned to Captain Jest'liana Warren and her First Officer Ace of the Faux. They offered aid in the form of an investment, fronting half of the down payment for a Calliope-class freighter on the agreement that they would be repaid in job leads as well as credits. The ship would be christened the IND Jackal, and its crew would go down in history as the Jackals: trouble for hire.
Confidence restored, Tachyon raced off to Luna, where she approached Ryan with an offer to pair up and partner with with the TSS Lupercalia and Phoenix Salvage to battle the invading Nall. A tired Ryan cited his own exhaustion and interference from then-girlfriend Raisa Amondella as reasons for his unwillingness to join the fray, but begged Tachyon to bring the fight to the Nall for him. Smitten as she was with the rebel, Tachyon agreed -- and took the promise to heart.
After failed attempts to win government contracts on La Terre and Castor, Tachyon wised up and turned to Demaria once again, approaching Imperatrix Shadowstalker with her latest scheme. She detailed a plan to harass and cripple Naliese trade routes and acquire intel, cargo, prisoners, and tech for the Demarian war effort, and was granted a letter of marque by the planet's government in March 3005.
It was an undertaking she could not hope to accomplish on her own, and this time, she knew exactly whom to tap for assistance.
Fox and Hound
The alliance between Faux and Jackal -- or, as they came to be known colloquially, Fox and Hound -- was the darling of front line coverage, its exploits publicized in all corners of the Orion Arm. Between them, they captured a total of ten Naliese freighters, two Naliese warships, three live prisoners, hundreds of tons of cargo, and functional cloaking arrays for the Demarian Militia, propelling the two crews from shady underworlders to intergalactic heroes. But this was hardly the most lasting success of the war, for Tachyon.
The Foxhounds' piratical exploits had won them the attentions of one Captain Henry Morgan, skipper of the infamous IND Satisfaction and maintainer of the pirate colony known as the Junkyard. Tachyon hit it off immediately with the old corsair, who took on an almost grandfatherly role with her, grooming her in his image and teaching her the secrets of a patchwork settlement she would come to call home. So when he fell ill, and the Nall threatened to overrun his legacy, she rallied Ace and the Foxhounds behind him.
Both crews spearheaded efforts to fortify the Junkyard's defenses. Faux engineers Aisrya Triyelle and Joshua MacNamara battled against time while Tachyon led her Jackals and Trevelyan down the derelict's hidden corridors and into its beating heart. In the end, they were successful: Trevelyan was able to bring the fire control center online, obliterating the invading Nall fleet.
On the Run... Again
In the waning days of the war, Fox and Hound went their separate ways, though they still maintained close and frequent contact. While Ace organized mercenary fleets to combat the Nall menace, Tachyon branched off, opening dialogues with Don Guiseppe Marcuccilli of the Warren and the heads of the Vanguard in hopes of profiting further from the conflict. Both moves proved unwise.
Reckless to a fault, Tachyon reneged on a deal with the Tomin Kora boss, executing his subordinate Marcus Antonius Verrus rather than splitting the take from an illegal salvaging job on the fringes of the Ra system. Don Marcuccilli fumed, capturing and torturing the Jackals, and forcing Tachyon to choose which member of her crew would die to balance the scales. When Tachyon chose herself, Jackal tactical officer Jason Reilly stepped forward, trading his life for his captain's. It was a sacrifice she would never forget, and a failure she would never forgive herself for.
Following the tragedy of Reilly's death, Tachyon and the Jackals signed a contract to salvage an unidentified vessel crashed in Sol space. It proved to be of an alien design unlike any the galaxy had ever seen, but attempts to remove the wreck from the crash site resulted in a violent explosion which rendered Martian military outposts powerless for weeks. When the Jackals fled, abandoning the mission and the contract, the Vanguard publicly declared them unwelcome on Martian soil.
Tachyon rode out the end of the war ferrying freight between Demaria, Castor, and Sivad, seeking to bolster the Militia's medical response teams as OATO prepared to storm Nalhom. In the end, the planet would require such aid urgently -- but not because of any Nall threat.
Penumbra
Volari's reappearance in mid-3005 incited a drive for revenge in Tachyon unlike anything she'd ever known. As the ATRV threat descended upon the galaxy, the Jackals stayed close to Demaria, prepared to defend it; Tachyon even held civil discussions with rival captain Marlan Ranix, joining in the efforts of the Athena and Councillor Geoffrey Cruyer's Public Health campaign to combat the epidemic. The peace, however, was short-lived.
With tensions building on Demaria, and facing her own developing infection with the virus, Tachyon openly defied Ranix, Cruyer, and Longclaw Silvereye Paintedheart by breaking the carefully-quarantined districts of New Alhira in a mad search for the missing Imperatrix, Snowmist Shadowstalker. Friction between her and Ranix worsened, and when crowd management and diplomacy utterly failed the troubled world, an explosive difference in views would renew the captains' animosity in full. Tachyon and her pilot, Swiftfoot Starchaser, would be abandoned aboard the ISS Orphic by Ranix, effectively removing her troublesome tendencies from a delicate situation.
Several weeks passed, and by the time the remaining Jackals and the Faux got wind of Tachyon's situation, she and Starchaser were already lost in the throes of genetic mutation. The Jackal, under command of First Officer Peredus, made headlines by breaking the government-imposed quarantine of Ungstir to rush to their aid, and again when the rescue Tachyon gave the order to run the RNS blockade of Waldheim space and break for freedom. Such open defiance, coupled with the unapologetic disregard for life, property, and public safety, would light up the newscasts and earn Tachyon an unfortunate reputation as Volari's accomplice in ATRV's spread.
It would also earn her a spot in Sivadian history: that of public enemy number one throughout the empire. Tachyon would never again look upon her homeworld.
The Final Days
Frustrated with what she perceived as sloppy and ineffective methods on the part of Ranix and the Athena, Tachyon set to scheming the second she and Starchaser received the antitoxin from longtime friend and known Watcher, Dr. Elianor Freyssinet. Determined to thwart Volari, she contacted both the Faux and the Captain of the UKT Wolfsbane, Remy LeBeau, and arranged for a meeting on the Junkyard.
In the days between that initial contact and the scheduled meeting, Tachyon enacted a bold plan. With the aid of the Watchers, several well-placed bribes among certain Athena crew, and a newly-promoted Battleclaw willing to look the other way, she orchestrated the theft of several samples of the ATRV antidote from Ranix and Cruyer's reserves aboard Moonstalker Station. Before anyone could react, the Jackals and their Watcher accomplices were halfway to the jump point, and two days later the medicine was distributed between Captains Ace, LeBeau, and Morgan.
The idea was to limit Volari's ability to knock out the supply of antitoxin by ending Ranix's monopoly of the cure and making it accessible to all medical personnel on all worlds. From there, Tachyon and her allies would bring the fight to Volari himself by tracking down his flagship, the IND Strategic Retreat.
Unfortunately, that never happened. Without Tachyon at the helm, the plans crumbled away into nothing. And Tachyon had mysteriously disappeared...
Balancing Equation
Tachyon did not reappear until nearly two years later, in the wake of the Faux's epic crash in the Sand Mother. But it was not the Faux she sought, nor was she eager to be recognized.
Jay Reilly and the IND Raider
As the Phyrrian War raged throughout the galaxy, one Jay Reilly turned up in New Alhira, seeking Ruin Pia -- protege of the late Jeff Ryan, and current leader of the Watchers. She laid before him her knowledge of Volari, and of the events during her brief trip to Phyrria which had begun the strange and unfortunate chain of events that led to the Overmind's corruption. In honor of promises made to Ryan, she said, she would lend her aid to their campaign of peace.
The plan backfired. She alienated Pia, and was forced to reluctantly turn to the Faux crew when he rejected her xenophobia and condemned her violent history. Nevertheless, her presence aboard the DCV Silver Streak -- as requested by its captain, Redtail Quicksilver, and recuperating hacker Kittianna Trevelyan -- was the first step toward a new beginning.
As the Faux survivors recuperated on Vollista, she remained sullenly indoors, terrified of the world's inhabitants and content to bicker in the ship's confines with a recovering Trevelyan. The pair, determined to strike out on their own once again, indulged a shared mercenary mindset which Tachyon ultimately acted upon.
Under Reilly's name, Tachyon purchased a derelict Calliope-class freighter salvaged from the ruins of the obliterated Luna, towed it to the Junkyard, and organized a small team of salvors to restore it to working order. The time spent on the Junkyard gave Tachyon time to reflect, however, and when it was all said and done, she gave the newly-christened IND Raider to friend and associate Vadim Tostanavich, preferring to stay behind in Hermes' Landing and begin construction on a permanent base of operations for her salvage, scrapyard -- and, yes, piratical -- endeavors. In so doing, she won the complete trust of Morgan, who named her his heir and successor.
Tachyon was pardoned for her crimes in Sol by Vanguard officer Lucius Tullius Castus in exchange for her assistance during a scouting mission on Odari. Rumors also persisted that she had risen high in the service of Boss Cabrerra, capitalizing on the bad blood between Shadowheart rivals and her own desire to eliminate Don Marcuccilli from the Tomin Kora playing field. Her nickname Dead Hand and the armored glove worn over a mutilated left hand, it was said, were grotesque symbols of her dedication to Cabrerra's cause... but were, in reality, the result of her own stupidity in her dealings with test subjects belonging to HenchCorp.
The Rift Crisis and Beyond
As OtherSpace enters its second decade, Mika Tachyon maintains a semi-regular presence in its ongoing story, though perhaps on a smaller scale than before. She is a rare sight among her former friends and colleagues in Hiverspace.
As Kip Caspar unleashed havoc in the Orion Arm, disintegrating the universe around them, Tachyon became cognizant that at least one of her personal friends had ascended into Kamirhood: Taeren M'nammrann. He charged her with using his ship, the Outcast, to find Katriel Elohim when she reached the other side. With her crew of able-bodied spacers - the Hekayti Tauro, the Demarian Hawkeye, and the Lotorian Fuzzit - she set out to do just that, taking time to assist her fellow refugees and kick up trouble along the way.
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