Twenty years ago, Earth was attacked. That whole ‘is there anyone out there?’ question got answered in spades when an alien fleet popped up in Low-Earth orbit, and blasted the hell out of government centers all around the world. The death toll was catastrophic. That was the start of the Great War.

A lot of heroes stood against the aliens, to try and force them off the planet. Militaries all around the world mobilized. In the end, though, it wasn’t the hero groups or the military that turned the tide. It was a ragtag group of renegades called the Vendetta, and it was started by a supervillain named Iceblade.

The Vendetta took the fight to the aliens in space, and eventually into enemy territory. They were always outnumbered, but they fought with a ferocity that left entire star systems destroyed in their wake. The Kratuans, the first aliens who invaded, were pushed to the brink of extinction as a species. The entire galaxy knew the Vendetta’s name.

And then the war ended. Peace came, and the need for the Vendetta was no more. Reformed into the Venatori, the Hunters, they set off into the blackness of space, and laid claim to a system just beyond Sol System, which they named Sanctuary.

Unique in the known galaxy, Sanctuary invited people of all races to live there, provided they played by the rules. Sanctuary quickly became an economic and research hub, encouraging trade with other systems, and providing a place where anything thing in the galaxy could be found, for a price. Within twenty years, everyone in the galaxy knew that if something was shady or rare, you went to Sanctuary to find it, or to find someone who knew how to get it.

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Those rules I spoke of? Well, they were more guidelines. As long as you didn’t kill anyone, the Hunters turned a blind eye, for the most part. Don’t go causing trouble in front of them, natch, but otherwise, unless there were bodies, then they left well enough alone. Those who didn’t get the message were dealt with brutally, and publicly. The same applied to the government and corporate forces, too, but if you started using lethal weapons, then they always had them ready to pull out.

Sure, there were other rules, but that was the big one. So long as you lived in Sanctuary sytem, and followed the rules, you could be sure of having a basic minimum of food and shelter, and everyone enjoyed free basic medical care. Of course, ‘basic’ just covered the basics. You lost an arm, you’d get a basic cyberarm or cloned replacement. You wanted fancy stuff? You had to pay. Same with the elective mods or plastic surgery. Repairing damage was one thing. Making yourself look pretty was something you had to pay for.

So what about me? Well, I’m Melinda Mollen, and I’m the Captain of the Void Traveler, a sweet little ‘freighter’ (okay, smuggler) that I run with the help of some of my siblings. Oh, and my daddy was a supervillain back in the day. Maybe you’ve heard of him?