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Gideon Vos
Age 28 in 1201
BARD PAPER: DANI0932 | Home | Traveller | BARD | DANI |
His parents home schooled Gideon for most of his childhood, but they sent him to a boarding school in Fija's capital Umguto to finish his primary education. They felt that it would do Gideon good to interact with children other than his sisters. At first Gideon resisted this, but once he got to school, he quickly adapted. Gideon was a mediocre student. His teachers often said that he didn't apply himself. He put enough work into school to pass, but not enough to do well. There was always something else more interesting to do.
After his schooling was done, Gideon took a job with Carlstok Industries, a industrial plumbing manufacturer. Gideon was put in the termination accounting division, where he worked with Carlstok's suppliers and subcontractors. He was not terribly fond of the job, but it was easy enough and it gave him enough money to go out and have a good time. Gideon quickly grew to like Umguto's night life. He became a regular at several nightclubs and was one of the people always invited to parties.
When he was 25, a new girlfriend took him to a casino. Gambling is heavily restricted on Fija; the populace feels its a waste of resources and only undesirables are attracted to it. It was Gideon's first taste of gambling and his appetite for it lasted longer than the girlfriend did. For six months, Gideon frequented the casino almost every week. Sometimes he won, and sometimes he lost. After six months, marshals from the Bureau of Justice raided the casino. Luckily for him, Gideon was sick with the flu that night, so he escaped arrest and prosecution.
For about a year, he tried to stay on the straight and narrow, but at a party a friend introduced him to a bookie. Soon Gideon was making regular bets on illegal dog fights. After a while, the excitement of just betting on dogs wasn't enough. Soon he bought a pair of dogs and was competing in the fights. This had other benefits than just the excitement of the fights; it also introduced him to many interesting and beautiful women.
Though out this period, Gideon continued to work at Carlstok. Gideon was promoted to supervisor of subcontractor accounting and had a small team of people working for him. His was always a popular group to work for, as Gideon frequently hosted parties. His group had fun, even if they weren't the most productive group in the firm. Though they were far from the worst group, again Gideon put in enough work to get along, but not to excel.
A week ago, one of Gideon's dog was going to go up against the reigning champion of the dog pits. A couple days before the fight, two members of the Lorange Syndicate approached Gideon with an offer. They would pay him 10,000 Fijan ducats if he would throw the match. Gideon thought about it for a few days, but then let the Syndicate know he would do it. His contact gave him a syringe of a cocktail of drugs including a canine anti-coagulant and several stimulants. With this, any wounds suffered by the dog, would bleed more than normal and the dog would probably bleed to death.
Gideon was supposed to make the injection a few minutes before the match, but as he was about to inject the drugs, he dropped the syringe, which broke open on the concrete floor of the dog pen. Gideon was soon in a panic, there wasn't time to get another dose from the syndicate and there wasn't any way to pull out of the match. Gideon best hope was that his dog would lose in the match. Unfortunately it didn't. The match wasn't even close enough that Gideon could tell the Syndicate that their drug didn't perform up to expectations.
After the match, Gideon ran out of the dog pits. He knew the syndicate probably had huge amounts of money tied up in this scam, and he had cost them all of it. There was no way he could pay them back, not with his job. He thought about going to his parent's preserve, but he didn't want to endanger his parents and he didn't think he could stand hiding in the woods for the rest of his life. Fija is a pretty small planet, so there wasn't much chance he could hide out in the city. His best chance was to get off planet, but there isn't regular passenger service between the worlds of the Coalition, and the few ships that offered passenger service would be sure to be watched.
Then the idea hit him. If he could become a crew member on a Freelancer vessel, it would solve all of his problems. It would get him off planet, and he would be surrounded by people armed to the teeth. Freelancers were used to dealing with Vampires, pirates, and TEDs, what were a few gangsters? Of course the average Freelancer crew didn't have much use for a bureaucrat, but Gideon figured he could spin them a few lies and ignore that part of his background.
He figured he should have some equipment, and not just show up with his briefcase. He didn't have much money on him, and he was too afraid to go back to his apartment, so he went to a second hand store and bought a bunch of used outdoors gear and a beat up shotgun. It was about all he could afford and he figured an "experienced" freelancer showing up with brand new equipment would look pretty strange.
Now he's on his way to the starport to find a crew needing an extra hand. He figures he will stay with the ship for a couple of months, to make sure the Syndicate hadn't sent any assassins after him. Who knows maybe the crew will find a huge cache of relic equipment and make a fortune.
Gideon is a bit of a lady killer, he has not had very many serious relationships, but dozens of casual flings. Sometimes he can be found dating two women at the same time. Of course the women don't know about each other. He knows that's the nicest thing to do, but its too much fun to stop.
Gideon is a heavy gambler, he does it more for the action than the money. It also draws him into a glamorous lifestyle. In general Gideon is a bit of a liar and a rogue, but he's a really friendly guy and people tend to like him, even when they are aware of his faults.
When questioned about his past, Gideon will be casual and underplay his talents. He hopes this modesty will come across as false modesty and the group will mistakenly believe that his is highly skilled. In a gun fight, he will dive for cover and "lay down covering fire", ie fire blindly at the enemy and hope he hits something. One of the advantage of the shotgun, is that the danger zone can inflict wounds as well as a direct hit. If asked about a tac-code, he will say that he never bothered with one. While Gideon is pretty much useless in a firefight, he is far from useless to a group of Freelancers. He has excellent people skills and can assist
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Weight: 68 Load: 42 Throw Range: 20 Unarmed Combat Damage: 1 |
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