Marco Castillion
(a.k.a. Ten Thumbs)
"If there's any freelancer I'd trust with a piece of machinery, it'd be Marco. Ten Thumbs didn't get his name for nothing. He's brilliant to the point that I hate talking to him! With most mechanics they're always so damn monofocused, but Marco's trained himself to look from different angles. Normally if all you have is a hammer, the world looks like a nail, but Marco sees a screw." ~Chevalier Sikkah Notte
FREELANCER RELIABILITY INDEX: 0.54
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Marco Castillion was born on the death planet Calthiaxial, an airless rock populated by a wide variety of opportunistic, chemosynthetic predators. He was forced at a young age to work on the colony's machining shop with a make-shift pair of drone armatures while the older colonists joined the militia or went mining. He didn't show signs of having any real mechanical gifts, but developed his skills through sheer training.
His first breakthrough came as a teenager. While tinkering with an inferior ACE purchased from off-planet, he realized that he could take some of its parts to fix a broken circuitboard and only reduce the ACE's overall efficiency by 8%. He studied the ACE, researched construction techniques, and ordered parts from offworld. Within two years he had designed his first quadrupedal ACE, which he designed as a tool-carrier. He redesigned his drone-armatures and within another year built his first bipedal ACE.
By the time he was an adult, Marco had designed a whole corps of specialty ACEs that he used to subtly push Calthiaxial into a profit. Calthiaxial got the attention of a Hundred Polities republic, and the two ratified an agreement that led to much-needed funds and manpower flowing into the colony. His skills were less valued as a result, so Marco sold his designs and used the funds to travel to Rathole Rock, a Freelancer hub near Sun Dynasty space. With more money and equipment, Marco developed a name for himself as a superlative engineer, roboticist, and programmer.
Education
Marco is self-taught and self-equipped. His harsh life on Calthiaxial forced him to develop a broad knowledge base, but none of it is particularly deep. Marco depends on his natural talents to create the tools he needs to complete jobs he normally can't handle.
Notable skills: Mechanical Engineering [ACEs]; Technical Engineering [ACEs]
Notable subskills: Piloting [Transports]; Craft [Tiny Toys]
Employment
Marco is a well-known quantity in the Hundred Kingdoms rimward of Sun Dynasty space. Marco has 87 missions under his belt, mostly designing ACEs on demand for numerous interested buyers. He's also taken to the field more than once as a mechanical expert, serving alongside many major freelancing bands.
Last contract: Hired by a small-time freelancer band, the Sunrise Sunsets, on a mission to trap an NEB kill team. Outfitted a small 'automated' space station with servant-ACEs to refuel/repair vessels for a price. ACEs designed to take over NEB kill teams stopping and looking for information. The trap was successful, destroying two NEB targets. Unfortunately the Sunrise Sunsets turned off ACE governing devices leading to a runaway programming error; the ACEs wiped out the freelancer band when they came to collect their spoils. Sun Dynasty was forced to destroy the space station and captured NEB ships from a distance.
Species
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Amber
Hair
Tan and black fur
Height
3.1 ft
Weight
110 lbs
