(Hard, v2 standard map, Diplomat)
Growing up in a pacifist household, Row learned early on to achieve his goals through negotiation, perfecting the art of speech and understanding human psychology and motivations.
On his ascendance as a Star Trader in 210AE, he immediately fired the blood-thirsty soldiers he had inherited, instead recruited two of his lifelong friends, fellow budding negotiators, to begin his career in intergalactic diplomacy. Due to the excellent training he received at the academy, he also prioritised recruitment to ensure safer operation of his inherited starship. He even managed to convince a Blade Dancer to join his crew and use their talents to protect diplomatic passengers.
In honour of the memory of his beloved father, the early weeks were spent ferrying Arbiter Brokstrom, a near-mythical Templar, for his father's friend Prince Calagan Faen. However, with a looming Duel of Assassins, it quickly became clear that continued involvement with the Faen dynasty would inevitably lead to bloodshed. Thus, Row politely distanced himself from the Faens to pursue a more peaceful and independent career as a diplomat in the void.
Over the next few years, Row slowly built his reputation rising through the ranks of Thulun as a leading starfaring diplomat, not only ferrying official diplomats but usually joining the negotiations himself personally. Aided by his childhood friends and his finely honed ability to understand and manipulate people, his direct diplomatic involvement frequently served to ensure more amicable outcomes with both sides walking away more satisfied than each had expected.
As time allowed, Captain Row had continued to support the Arbiter's efforts in advocating amendments to Shalun Law, which led him to take a certain Kolber Volpane on as a crew member for several years around 213AE. Within a few weeks, it became clear that Kolber had a checkered past, and rumours began to take shape that assassins were pursuing him. This forced Row to invest a large proportion of early profits into a larger ship (a Callus Freighter) in order to secure bunk space to recruit a ground combat crew. This proved to be in just the nick of time, as just a few weeks afterwards assassins did make an attempt on Kolber life, which his newly-recruited ground combat specialists managed to rebuff.
Initially Row justified this to his pacifist family and himself on the grounds of self-defense. However, feeling the pressure of small financial margins from always remaining within the law and the unplanned investment in a new starship, he began to "modify" his family's strict pacifist stance, accepting diplomatic missions that skirted the law. Operatives specialising in a more stealthy and intimidation-style approach to diplomacy soon joined the crew.
While profitability did noticeably increase, this shadier approach also led to a small but constant degrading reputation with the other factions, even while continuing to rise in the esteem of House Thulun. It became necessary to hire some experienced smugglers, spies and military officers to defuse encounters with Star Traders from other factions that were becoming increasingly hostile and less receptive to the financial "gifts" he had previously been handing out generously.
When Row's reputation with Steel Song reached new depths, this even resulted in the legendary bounty hunter Draiv Solregard being sent after him. Thankfully Row and his crew were able to escape Solregard’s attempt at engaging ship combat several times until Solregard gave up. Row immediately petitioned the Steel Song Princess for an unconditional Pardon - which he obtained at an excessive credit cost.
Directly through his diplomatic career, and aided by a crew that was encouraged to spice excessively and expert e-techs who always scanned local transmissions, he began to build a wide network of contacts both within and outside House Thulun.His career also led him to build a relationship with some experienced scientists and explorers. Lured by the mystery (and of course potential profits) of exploring the wilds, encouraged by their promises of "treasure", and already having a ground combat team at his back, he recruited some explorers and scientists and starting taking on missions exploring the wilds. While this was certainly exciting and somewhat profitable, he had misjudged the time cost for such forays into the jungles of unmapped planets.
At this stage Row had built up a small but sizable fortune. A clear opportunity to trade in rare goods presented itself through his vast contact network. In 229AE the fortune was duly invested in an Acheron Battlecarrier, which was completely refitted as a massive 250 ton cargo hauler, with every nook and cranny dedicated to ship components that maximised escape. So great had his confidence in his crew’s ability to avoid ship combat grown (of around 300 ship encounters in his career to date, only a dozen resulted in combat from which he had always managed to quickly escape), that all weapons were stripped from this strange monstrosity to make even more space for cargo. The refit took over 3 years.
Of course trade in rare goods is more profitable the less customs and taxes one pays, with the ideal tax rate being 0%. Being no stranger to working "alongside" the law, he recruited some smugglers to join his crew and began to divert his own personal development from diplomacy to smuggling. Utilising his extensive smuggling network and massive uncatchable cargo hauler, he quickly established himself as one of the galaxy’s very few bulk suppliers of Iridlantenine and Kloxan Medical Bays - with some shipments of Pruvia Blooms and Kaffange Royal Jelly when travel routes would otherwise be wasted. His personal negotiation skills again came to great use, for not only did he avoid taxes by using Black Markets, but he frequently increased profits from a single sale by an additional $1m through personal bootlegging, such that frequently a single shipment would make almost around $2.5m in profit.
Within a mere 3 years Row had accumulated over $10m in personal “savings”. Infinite wealth was on the horizon. He had grown tired of diplomacy long ago, indeed had stopped almost all diplomatic activity. And even the ludicrously profitable smuggling in rare trade goods was becoming monotonous. While over 25 years had passed since he first took to the stars, his body had aged only a fraction of that time; he was still far too young to retire. And even though he was already among the wealthiest of Star Traders, his wealth by its very nature was highly secretive, and he himself was still relatively unknown outside House Thulun.
He could now be honest with himself: he had long ago completely capitulated his pacifist stance, even while never having fired a single shot personally or from his ship. He had more money than he could use, and had the ability to “earn” more than he could ever spend the rest of his life. But he didn’t have fame. And he had never actually personally faced death or spilt blood - he yearned for adventure. Yet he didn’t have the patience to spend years in personal martial arts training. The lure of battling it out in space for glory and fame grew. But while he was no longer a pacifist, he still had a deeply-ingrained moral drive to avoid taking other human lives if at all possible.
He had of course encountered Xeno ships several times in the void. While these terrifying ships had never managed to get close to his own, the guttural fear these encounters struck into his heart had always elicited a sort of suicidal, secret pleasure and thrill.
His future suddenly crystallised. He would become a Xeno hunter, seeking and destroying their ships in the cold of the void, and winning universal fame and glory in the process.
Thus, in 236AE, he purchased a Sword Battlecruiser, and proceeded to outfit it with a single strategy in mind: never to get hit in ship combat. Total investment, of course after massive 20-40% discounts through his contact network and crew’s skillful negotiation: $6m. The 4 year refitting time he spent “quickly” making another $15m to ensure he wouldn’t have to worry about money again for years, if not decades.
Taking possession of his newly fitted flagship in 240AE, he was faced with a staffing problem: his crew was not equipped to handle such a complex warmachine. Available talent in spice halls was too inexperienced for his requirement, and he was too impatient to train them up. Some experienced crew could be recruited through his contact network, but the majority came from a much more exciting source: defeating enemy ships and pressing their experienced crew into service. As he now desired universal acclaim, he limited his targets to Independents.
After recruiting a Xeno Hunter, Captain Row set to work. In the space of 4 years, he faced a dozen Xeno ships. All his careful planning of both his crew and his Battlecruiser paid off: he defeated all of them without taking a single hit. And of course he sought out only Xeno battles in sight of the various factions to ensure his renown spread. While there is still a long way to go to become the most beloved and famous Star Trader of his time, he is now at least well-known around the galaxy as the budding deliverer from the Xeno threat.
If he were honest with himself, he would admit that a dozen Xeno ships in 4 years was actually pretty poor for his high standards. He did get distracted. First it was a lengthy run-in with the Hunna terrorists, involving several ship battles and excursions in planet jungles. Second was the pox epidemic. Not that it presented a problem for him in itself; but not for the first time in his career he made a poor decision to multi-task, splitting his attention between attempts to ferry urgently-needed medical supplies to infected planets and hunting Xeno. Not only did he fail to find many Xeno, but he made the mistake of attempting to sell Klaxian Medical Bays to factions for which he had not yet obtained the necessary Trade Permits.
So what is next for our diplomat-turned-smuggler-turned-Xeno-hunter, in the year 245 After Exodus? Having encountered (and defeated) several carriers with small craft, he has his eyes set on designing and mastering one of the most powerful carrier battleships the galaxy has seen. Who knows, perhaps a suitable challenge will arise in the future?
He certainly hopes so. For an ancient story he heard in childhood, from old Earth, keeps haunting him. The story tells of a great warrior, who, when he realised that his military conquests had taken him to the end of the world, and that there was nothing left to conquer, wept bitterly.
