posted September 02, 2000 06:54 PM
Katrylle Morgahn
She could never remember anything before her life on the streets of Kirkdon as a child. It was as if she had never existed before her fifth or sixth year. In fact, her life had been very different during those first few years of her life. She had been the only daughter of 8 children born to Roraeyx and Daestyr ZyThyrn in the Deltaeryn system. Although her family had been members of the aristocracy on the planet Daphryn, they were considered lower nobility throughout the system.
This was not a problem for Burthlyn Posterian and her newest get rich scheme. Burthlyn, her husband Dolis and son Horggan traveled from port to port scouting wealthy families with young children in order to kidnap them for ransom. Kat, or rather Joslynne as her mother had named her, was one such child. At the age of 4 1/2, Joslynne wandered away from her nanny in the marketplace and was never seen again, despite the payment of 50,000 creds per the ransom demands.
Burthlyn kidnapped 30 children that year, bringing them all back to Pelvar and the city of Kirkdon where she taught them how to beg and steal to support her when the money ran out. Burthlyn also renamed each child to keep them from being discovered. As a sideline, she also ran an "orphanage/adoption" agency, placing the stolen children with less than reputable "applicants" for an exorbant price. Most of her clients were not looking for children to love and raise as their own, but needed slave labor to do the tasks no self-righteous adult would take, slave or not.
Even at this early age, Kat was intelligent enough to understand what was expected of her. She watched the others, hearing the stories of the "adoptions" and the terrors that laid down that path. She also determined correctly that to avoid that path, she must excel at Burthlyn's teachings, becoming indispensable to the greedy woman, taking steps all the while to escape.
Her time came one rainy afternoon 2 years later. Tipped off to a minor portion of Burthlyn's activities, the interplanetary police invaded the house, carting everything and everyone off. Kat had been out that day, having plotted the schedule of a man she deemed worthy of her pickpocket talents. She had been correct in her assessment and was skipping back to Burthlyn's house to hand over half her pickings, the other half having been squirreled away in her hidy hole far from Burthlyn, when all hell broke loose. As a crowd formed, she practiced another trait Burthlyn had taught her in a round about way; how to blend in and not be noticed.
At first, panic struck her as she realized she had no place to go, but the jingling of Burthlyn's money in her pocket reminded her this was the opportunity she had been waiting for. A sly smile on her face, she slipped away into the crowd.
For the next 3 years or so, she lived off of what she had been taught, never being caught....not until Black Jack. He was a tall, finely dressed man, his hair as black as her own with a premature dusting of silver at his temples. But it was his eyes that mesmerized her. She had never seen her own striking gold-flecked green eyes, so the silver-flecked sapphire blue against the deeply tanned skin of his face were the prettiest she had ever seen. Perhaps in the back of her mind she wanted to be caught, perhaps it was just fate, but that day, for the first time in her criminal career, she had been caught stealing. She stood her ground dispite his threats and ravings, something inside telling her that this man was not as he appeared. Her years on the streets had taught her how to read people, and this man before her read differently than the raging tempest he portrayed.
His inability to frighten the child impressed and surprised him and on the spur of the moment, he decided he needed to find out more of her. It was at this point he decided she should be "punished" for the theft. He told her she would return with him to his base and work off the debt of 1000 creds he professed was in his wallet. In truth, he only had about 10 creds at the moment, but he figured he needed time to find out everything about this enigma before him. Quietly and with a grace he had only seen in high-born warrior women far beyond her years, she accepted his terms and followed him.
It took her approximately a year of living and working with the Midnight Raiders, the group of pirates Jack led, before Kat worked off the supposed 1000 creds. At the end of this time, Jack still hadn't found out anything about the child, but not for lack of trying. She had been primed since arriving in Kirkdon not to reveal anything and Jack could find no reason to keep her tied to the Raiders, though everyone had grown quite fond of her, taking to calling her their Kittyscot. The day finally came to release her from her "punishment" and Jack was not looking forward to it.
When he told her of her freedom, he did so with his back turned and eyes downcast, so he did not see the look of complete terror on her face at his words. Before she could stop herself, she lunged at his back, clutching herself to his waist, pleading with him to let her stay with the Raiders and promising to keep up with the work she had been doing for nothing but room and board. Taken completely by surprise at the first sign of emotion she had ever exhibited apart from occasional laughter, Jack managed to turn himself around in her arms. Stroking her raven hair, he spoke quietly to her, promising she could remain as part of the Raiders for as long as she wished.
It was at that point her life had truly changed for the better. Jack and the Raiders were not pirates taken to killing just for the thrill of it. Most of their raids were against high-profit companies, particularly mining companies using slave labor for their gain. Jack fancied himself as a present day Robin Hood of sorts and though a lot of his plunder was split among the Raiders, a portion of it did go to true charities in the form of anonymous donations. It was at this point Kat began learning there was honor in thievery and set about learning all she could about the Raiders and their tactics.
Seeing her interest, Jack helped her along, teaching her how to cheat at cards, use her looks to gain trust in unsuspecting men, though he insisted she never use her body. Eventually, on or about her 15th birthday, when she was tall enough, he began teaching her how to pilot a mech. She had been in one often enough, the Raiders having once been a complete lance before breaking off from the rest and taking to piracy. The thrill she felt at being in the pilot's seat could never compare to just being a passenger. From that moment on, she was addicted.
Caen, Jack's second, owned a LAM, though his first love was his Wasp. Kat had seen it in action on several occasions and was taken by it's versatility. She pleaded with Caen to teach her how to pilot it, and with Jack's approval, he agreed. Her every free moment was learning everything she could about the various mechs, how they worked, how to repair and fly them, even going so far as to learn how to pilot a jumpship. Jack knew she had a natural aptitude for mechanical things, she had proven that in her first year, but her excellerated knowledge went far beyond his dreams. Still, he could see her first love was the LAM so for her 20th birthday....or what he deemed her 20th birthday, he presented her with her own Stinger LAM. As everyone in the Raiders besides Jack had a callname beginning with the word Midnight, Kat became the Midnight Angel, the symbol of a winged panther against a full moon her Mech's moniker and her right-arm tattoo. Along with the LAM came her commission into the Raiders as a full partner.
As she was growing up, Jack became increasingly interested in her past. She had provided some vague clues, but she was still unwilling or unable to give details so he resorted to other sources. Another quirk of fate led him to an old news article of the arrest of a ring of kidnappers, the holo-pict showing Burthlyn, Dolis and son Horggan. During one of her bouts of "info giving" she had mentioned a woman, starting to call her by name before the fear Burthlyn had put into her about revelations and their consequences overtook her. She managed the symbol Burth before clamming up. Jack was sure this woman in the holo-pict was the Burth Kat had mentioned. Hacking into old police files, he discovered that Burthlyn had aproximately 15 children in her house at the time of her arrest, all of them having been kidnapped from other systems. All but 5 were accounted for; 2 boys and 3 girls. Asside from a small footnote as to the whereabouts of the boys, no further information could be gained on the 3 missing girls or their families. Jack was sure Kat had been one of those girls.
Kat had never mentioned a family before, so she had either forgotten about them or it just didn't matter to her, so he never revealed the information he had gained about her. He had hit a brick wall at this point, unable to find the names of the families of the girls, not really wishing to for fear of losing her, but in the back of his mind, he always felt guiltly for witholding this information.
Two years later, Kat had become Jack's second after Caen's Wasp had been blown up during a raiding run of the Altars Opal Mines. In that time, not only had she gained extreme knowledge in all things mechanical, she and Jack had become more than mentor and student. She had moved into his quite ranch nestled in the Plevarian mountains and discovered an intese love for animals and the quiet life. This was soon to be distroyed, however. Jack had made a powerful enemy in his past, one she knew as Pyster Darrak. After the Altaras run, a run Jack beat him out of by mere hours, Darrak decided he would rid himself of Jack for good.
Through his connections, Darrak sent out word of a Daltarian Fire Diamond shipment being transported off-world under minimun guard. The shipping compay didn't want to draw undo attantion towards the shipment so they thought the less guards, the better. Although Jack was suspitious, he couldn't resist an easy run. He took precautions, however. He had Kat in the Midnight Angel stay back along with Joke, Baldoran and Destraen, all in LAMs. If trouble was to arise, they were to scrag the area in diving runs, giving Jack and the others time to bag out. Unfortunately, Darrak knew Jack as well as Jack knew him and the LAMs were discoverd just as the main force ambushed Jack. Somehow, Kat was able to get to Jack just as his Panther took a head-shot. Her mind went into overload and she began firing at anything that she didn't recognize, taking several mecs down before being damaged byond fighting ability.
Jumping from the cockpit of the Angel, she ran to Jack's Panther, entering hrough the special cargo/escape hatch he had built into it. As gently as she could, she dragged the unconsious form of her friend, lover and commander from the wreck of the Panther to the safty of an abandoned warehouse nearby. Finially able to look at Jack, she realized he was beyond saving. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she said her last goodbyes to him, kissing him gently. Taking her hand in his, Jack pressed something hard into it. "Hold on to this, Kittyscot. It will keep you from harm....for a while...The Panther....a CD with your name....get it. It's vital...." Those were Jack's final words before slipping away from her. She didn't know how long she had stayed like that, Jack's head in her lap, crying over his body and her lost friends...the only family she had ever known, but when the tears had dried and the distruction had settled down outside, she lifted Jack's body with a strength she had never known she had possessed, returned to the Angel. Remembering Jack's words, she sprinted to the remains of the Panther and found the CD.
Lifting off, she never gave another look to the distruction behind her.
She flew to the ranch only to find Darrak's forces had been there too, distroying everything they couldn't take with them. Unfortunately for the sentry left behind with orders to kill anything that came near, she was in no mood to play. The fight was short, the Wasp falling hard just as the Angel took her final shuddering breath in the soft earth of what was to be a cornfield. It was in that fight that Kat lost her right eye, the result of a stray laserbullet that miraculously did no further damage. In time, she burried Jack on his land, fixed the Angel and left Pelvar, determined to find a way to make Darrak pay for what he had stolen from her. She had all but forgotten about the CD.
She wrangled her way on the next Jumpship out of the system and, at the first space port, had her only other possession besides the battered Angel put in a place no one could ever steal it from her; her empty eye socket. Jack's last gift to her had been a rather large, black opal from the Altaras Opal run. Unknown to her, the opal, now covered with her trademark leather eyepatch, was more than a pretty bauble. Altaran Opals were well known in certain circles to enhance psychic abilities and, at the moment of it's surgical installation, she began having strange dreams and visions that somehow ended up coming true. The opal has always remaind a secret she will take to the grave with her. She would rather die than be left with nothing again.
Because of her loss of the Raiders, Kat stayed to herself, rarely taking an interest in anyone or anything around her unless there was a mark to be had through a card game or a tech tried to lay a hand on the Angel, the former causing her rage to blow in all it's fury. The majority of her time, when not working on the Angel, was spent practicing card dealing or practicing with one of the two weapons she carried; a blaster and an ancient sword belonging to Jack's family. Whatever she did, however, the mini-CD player was her constant companion, Pat Benatar almost continuously singing in her ears. She had found the CD on one of her many treks with Jack through the old ruins near the ranch and after Jack had listened to it, he linked one song in particular with her; "Shadows of the Night". She had joked with him that the only reason for this was the mention of Midnight Angel in the lyrics, but he disagreed without giving a reason.
The others on the Jumpship avoided her, which suited her fine, and when they finally reached a land by the name of RhyDin, she departed without even a "s'long" to them. For several days, she got the lay of the land, finially coming across a grubby little inn called the Red Dragon. It was there that she met the first person she would speak to outside of raising a bet. As she drank near the bar, she overheard a conversation between a woman and some boy pretending to be a man. She was suprised at the woman's outlook on life and battles in particular, though she appeared to be a warrior. Throughout the days, she had never heard such a view in this land, it's occupants seeming only to care about killing one another. This woman, however, took a totally different view, that it is stronger to solve conflicts through words, leaving the sword for defense. In time, the two would meet often, discussing this and other subjects. This meeting eventually led to her first free-lance contract since being out on her own. It would seem the woman had a friend who was commander of a rag-tag group of mech pilots and they were currently doing battle. She would arrange a meeting.
The meeting between Jugger and Kat went well, and by it's end, the contract had been signed. In a way, Jugger reminded her of Jack and somehow, she felt comfortable with him, though she still tended to keep herself apart from the rest of the Doom Bringers. She didn't think she could survive another loss of someone close so it was better to keep them at arms length. She kept herself loyal to those she fought with, but only so far as fighting for them and, although she was proficient at card cheating, she never used it against those she fought side by side with. Somehow, the CD from Jack's panther found it's way to the bottom of an old sack, the memory of it wiped from her mind until it was to resurface at another time....