PtV - Backstory 2 - Character Backstory

Ishele's Path: Captain's log of the "Hir'Rakhi"
Side Notes:
- Master Yazu was not implemented, he was supposed to command a heavily armed carrier.

Chapter 2 – A brief history of pain

Life wasn't exactly easy on her. It was more like being buried alive, with only a slim chance of digging yourself out before the lack of oxygen became lethal. But time and again, Ishele had dug herself out, clawing a way to the surface, even against the worst of odds. Life still did the best to kill her, three times it came very close and on two occasions it actually succeeded. Luckily never long enough so she would take permanent damage. Or at least not too much.

It still had taken its toll. Her heart had been literally crushed once, an intricate pattern of scars adorned her back and her right hand had to be replaced. And those were only the obvious "trophies", much more damage had already healed… or were simply not physical. She suffered quite some abuse, both mental and physical.

It had to be expected when a child is born to a woman within a harem of a brutal man. In this case, the first piece of luck Ishele ever had was that the man never fathered any other children and he was starting to grow old. So he taught her many things a father would normally teach his son. Many kinds of hand-to-hand combat, the handling of many different weapons, advanced strategy and battle tactics, the art of a quick hand in combination with a little diversion, things she would make good use of it her later life, much to the contrary of her father's plans for her future, even some redundant things like how to make love to a woman, music or art. But still, she was just a daughter, a woman, a lower being, and he never let her forget it, not even once.

Not until she killed him. She crushed his windpipe with a technique he himself had shown her. She left him to die, with cut tendons and a dagger in his liver, only a few decks above a ship's main reactor in the process of overloading and exploding less than a minute later. Just to be certain.

She hated her father. She hated what he stood for and what he had done to her and her mother. He had abused her, her mother and many other women. Not that the others mattered to her, it was just something the universe would hold against him. But in a way, even if she would never admit it, she still admired him.

Master Ishaal had been a loyal general within Makaan's armies that managed to survive the fall of the self-proclaimed messiah. He had never taken to conquest, always allying himself with mightier or more charismatic leaders. He was more the "Follow-my-orders-or-I'll-have-this-man-torture-you!" kind of man, Lady Ishele knew his "abilities" quite well, she herself had been at his mercy quite some times. However, she was his only "victim" he ever healed afterwards, he didn't want to waste her good looks. Her second piece of luck.

She had always been quite beautiful, but the harsh treatment of his father gave her the kind of beauty and grace one would associate with a feline beast of prey. Only little food most of the times, much physical training, and yet she never became bulky, she always kept her lithe and slender physique. She would have surely been killed somewhere along the way if her father would have thought her to be even the least bit less attractive.

Only once he went too far with her. In a heated close-combat training session, he had slammed her face-first to the ground and then thrust a staff into her back so hard, it fractured her ribs, collapsed her lung and injured her heart. That was probably the only time in his entire life he had ever felt the fear of losing someone (and not someTHING) dear to him. The lung and the ribs were not a very big problem for the medical facilities of even the least advanced Vaygr ship. The heart on the other hand, was a whole different matter.

Her third piece of luck, again thanks to her father, was his fear of dying of a heart attack, a death unworthy of a warrior of his standings. He had devoted a whole highly advanced medical facility to create him the perfect replacement heart should he ever suffer from such an attack. Ironically, his constant physical workouts and his strict diet kept his heart so healthy, he probably wouldn't have needed the replacement before the age of 80. So he had them put that genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced heart into her. Only one person had questioned those orders that day, and he had instantly broken that man's neck. It was safe to say that from this day on, her heart wouldn't be a problem anymore.

After she had killed her father at the age of 16 and had managed to get her hands on a ship with a crew barely loyal to her, it took a few years for her name to be heard in higher places. At the age of 21, she had become a very capable leader and a great commander in spaceship combat. She had found a way to instill an incredible strong loyalty in her subordinates, having them fight harder and more vicious than many other Vaygr. She was fearful, a sheer icon of terror, but she promised great rewards to those who were successful or able to survive against the odds. Those who were fast, smart or simply good in what they did rose in her ranks, those who weren't died trying.

That way, she had collected a few of the best pilots and crewmen the Vaygr had to offer. She only had one Carrier, accompanied by only a very small fleet of fighters, corvettes and frigates, but she was soon feared by many. It didn't take much longer until she became a target of men jealous of her standings. She was probably the first and only woman that had ever managed to get so high up in the hierarchy of the Vaygr. Nobody could explain why she had come so far or how she was able to inspire men to continuously outdo themselves.

Many leaders had risen in the Vaygr since the fall of Makaan, many of those approached her. Many of them tried to get her to bow to them, many of those gravely underestimated her and paid with their lives. Only a few ever got her to cooperate, even fewer managed to get out of it alive and even fewer still really benefitted from it. They all made a huge mistake: they thought of her, of all women, as a lesser being. They couldn't have been more wrong.

It wasn't before she met those men who, together with herself, would nowadays be known as "The Great Five", those great leaders that governed the largest parts of Vaygr space, that she was finally treated as an equal. Commander Lijan, capable pilot and cunning tactician, who had always been a frontline leader. Warlord Vekur, the smart but cowardly man that was so fond of long range combat and of things blowing up. Warsmith Weniir, probably the most brilliant engineer, inventor and thinker the Vaygr ever had. Master Yazu, a man that made up in firepower and ruthlessness what he lacked in accuracy, patience and, to some extent, brains. She was 26, much younger than either of them. She was a woman. But she still was a force to be reckoned with. They all had to acknowledge it, if they wanted to or not.

Lijan respected her for her accomplishments, he even dealt with her on a regular basis, on many occasions even as allies in battle. Until she stole an ancient piece of technology from him. Her ship took severe damage as she escaped that day.

Vekur tried to make fun of her, on every occasion they met. They shared a genuine dislike for each other, but he was mostly scared of her. Until she allied herself with his arch enemy. She lost her lower right arm as one of his missile struck her ship and a safety door slammed shut.

Weniir only sided with Ishele at first because he also disliked Vekur. Even more so, he outright hated the man, he had been at war with Vekur for far too long. In time, Weniir and Ishele even came to like each other. So he thought. But she was simply seducing him to use his skills. He built her artificial hand, he even created the Ejsh technology for her. Until she tried to blow up his ship. He is still waiting for a chance to get her back for all that.

Yazu simply ignored her most of the times.

In the last two years, before the Keepers began attacking, she cemented her place as a great leader of the Vaygr. Her domain was smaller than those of the other leaders, but her fleet still rivaled theirs. Especially her Destroyers were formidable, she even adapted one of them to be her flagship. Simply the sight of the Hir'Rakhi is nowadays enough to strike fear in the hearts of her enemies. If it does not, her Ejsh cannon will definitely do so.

Too bad the Keepers neither have hearts nor fear.