Harja

Beginnings

Nothing is known of Harja's past, perhaps not surprising, given the man's status. He claims to be a political exile from the Northup Alliance, once a succesful politician who angered too many of the wrong people and had to leave before he has, in his own words, 'an accident'. The Northup Alliance claims to have no record of anyone matching his description, and as long as Harja refuses to identify his system of origin, the sheer number of potential identites to sift though makes uncovering his true origins almost impossible.   His known history begins as a member of the exploration and salvage ship Zhou Man. The Zhou Man was assigned to the Northup Alliance's 67th Exploratory fleet, and the Phase class FourDrive vessel Bandeirantes. As part of the fleet's strategy, it would jump into a previously unrecorded system, and privately contracted exploration vessels, such as the Zhou Man, would explore the system and had the claim to any salvage or discovery rights. The fleet arrived in the system named 'Slails Sector 3262', in what was expected to be a routine visit to a system with a G class star and a dozen planets, three of which were potential colonist sites.   The actual sequence of events after this are controversial. The Northup Alliance claims that the Bandeirantes was sabotaged, and its destruction was a deliberate act intended to hide the discovery of advanced technologies. Harja claims that the Bandeirantes' captain made an unsanctioned jump too close into the gravity well of the system in an attempt to beat legitimate salvagers to a potentially lucrative find. The jump failed, and the Bandeirantes was destroyed, stranding the dozen or so exploration vessels in the system. It was only the fortutious discovery of an old FourDrive enabled vessel in orbit around the planet that allowed the fleet to leave. Through a sequence of clever bargaining, ruthless assassinations, and outright threats, Harja was nominated captain of the FourDrive vessel, which he named the Barbican.   Now, Horja and the Barbican are one of the many terrors of isolated and ill-defended systems. They will arrive in system and threaten the local population to either pay them to leave (typically getting paid in trade goods or supplies), or they will take payment violently, attacking cargo vessels and kidnapping entire populations of isolated settlements. The Pit Edge cares little about the origin of goods, and the nature of the indentured service is also not very well examined, giving Horja a guaranteed market for his ill-gotten gains.  

The Barbican

The Barbican is one of the smallest FourDrive enabled vessels in Known Space. At almost 2.5 km in length, it is smaller than most other FourDrive craft by a factor of ten, but its small size reduces its capacity to jump, with its power systems only able to allow jumps weeks apart. Its history is unknown; there are no current ships that small in construction, and no records exist of its original manufacturer. However, it allows Horja and his people unrivalled independence, and the ability to travel unhindered by state or corporate demands. Rumours abound that the craft is alien in origin, and far older than it appears, but Horja refuses to allow experts on to investigate it and keeps the vessel in deep space, far from prying eyes.   It carries eight smaller 'Ranger' class interplanetary shuttles, which have been modified to act as missile boats, with 32 long-range kinetic strike missiles. They are also capable of carrying significant cargo.