Mazun Contreras

Skills: (MT)

Background:
Mazun was born in Enid (0113 Massilia), an old, industrial world on the spinward edge of Massilia whose heavily polluted atmosphere forced its 9 billion inhabitants to use filter masks in the open and live in enclosed, self-sufficient arcologies, underwater cities, and orbital colonies. He is of fairly mixed Solomani/Vilani ancestry (DM+1 to aging), but his family has spoken just Galanglic for many generations. Mazun is a average build, but his dexterity and intelligence are above average. It was probably those traits which allowed him to enter college in spite of a deficient education. He used his time at college well, making up for his initial deficits, and even graduated with honors. At 22, he obtained a grant to attend the famed and highly selective Amaya Technical School in Amaya (0112 Massilia), located on a rocky satellite of a small gas giant. He excelled at school, graduating with honors.

Leaving the school at 26, he decided to join the Scouts. As a college honor graduate, Mazun received rank Admin Trainee rank in the bureacraucy branch. With his background as a technical school graduate, he was unsurprisingly given office assignment in the technical office. As a scout, he spent his time frequently as an engineer in larger ships or in base operations, although he also saw action in special and wartime missions, being promoted several times until reaching the rank of Scout Commander (IS-15), allowing him to be Chief Engineer in larger ships or section chief in scout bases. He was transferred several times and has seen action in Massilia, Zarushagaar, Lishun, Vland, and Windhorn.

Mazun was 36 and half through his third term when the Rebellion erupted in 1116. He was operating out of a scout base in Lishun: Lashlaminan (0612 Lishun). When Lucan ordered the Lishun fleet to pull out, only a few scouts had been drafted into the Navy units, so he initially stayed behind, getting a front row seat to witness the Vargr overrunning the sector. Scout ships often pulled forces with local system defense squadrons, but in this case it was a losing battle. Lashlaminan was spared the worst due to its proximity to Vland sector, but the Vilani's secession also turned the system into a frontier. Against his wishes, Mazun often found himself as a support personnel for the remaining, Lucan-loyal Navy's operations, especially out of the small Naval base at Larkarda (0712 Lishun). He even was sent in an “infiltration mission” to Hrun (0312 Lishun).

Although Mazun was loyal to the Emperor, that is, Lucan, he never quite took an active decision. For him, Dulinor was an assassin and the Vilani and Antares just secessionists. However, from 1117 to 1121 Mazun became increasingly uncomfortable with Lucan's Navy, as it seems that somehow a “survival of the most ruthless” started to govern promotions. Only his contacts in the scouts saved him from landing in the brig when he raised his voice to question Navy officers' decisions. Practically drafted as an engineer for ragtag naval units with scout support, he found himself flying in smaller and smaller starships (Quote: “You don't need a proper engineer like me to run this bathtub!”). He saw action against Vargr pirates (some missions even taking him to the trailing part of Windhorn), against the Vilani, and against civilian uprisings--the latter being his least favorite.

In 1122, Mazun was serving as Engineer in a Scout support ship within a small Naval unit. A large group of Vargr Corsairs attacked the unit at Dekilari (0711 Lishun). Thanks to some poor decisions by the Naval commander, the Imperial unit, far too far away from Lucan's power base, was decimated. Mazun was captured by the Vargr pirates and, together with other imperial survivors (both navy and scouts, and even a few marines), was appalled to be treated like merchandise and put in hibernation to be shipped to some Vargr world in Windhorn in order to be auctioned.

And that's the last thing he remembers. Mazun awoke in a hospital on Tagan (Windhorn 2611) in 1202, after decades spent in a cryopod. He was quite desperate when thawed out. His world had collapsed around him in the last six years before he was captured, but the war still seemed winnable. While he was torn as to which faction he should support, each wandered into moral ambiguity, if what he's been told is true, all that is moot now. The people around him are telling him that while he slept the Imperium and its neighbors were destroyed by some A.I. computer virus run amok. How he came to be spared from the holocaust is unknown.