Chapter 1

Luck – Fortune, whether good or bad, which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. Many think of it as a supernatural force that bends the course of events to either a positive or negative outcome.

This is a story about a girl. A girl whose luck hangs over her like a black cloud, ever looming and determined to make every moment of her existence miserable.

Rosaline Murphy, Roz to her acquaintances at work, often thought of herself as the galaxy's walking personification of bad luck. In her mind, if she didn't have bad luck, she wouldn't have any luck at all. Nearly everything she did or was involved in turned out bad. Sky car crash? Everyone gets out with cuts and bruises. Roz is taken off on a stretcher with both legs broken. Generator overloads and blows up? No one in the neighborhood is hurt. Roz's apartment catches fire and she loses most of her belongings. Nothing ever went right for this girl. She was also "blessed" with an eidetic memory, meaning she would photographically remember nearly every instance of her lifelong bad luck.

Roz lived alone on Omega. She was orphaned at 18, just months before she was to leave the station to attend a good school. Thugs from the Blood Pack killed her father after everyone began blaming humans for the plague that had swept through Omega. The only reason she didn't live on the streets was because the landlord her father paid rent to was also head of Omega's branch of Terminus Parcel Service. When her father was murdered, the landlord gave the girl a job delivering for TPS to keep the apartment. That, and the dirty old man reserved the right to either raise her rent or call on her for certain… "favors".

One might ask why she didn't just leave. Why not just take off and get away from it all? Unfortunately, as his only known relative, Roz was legally bound to her father's credit debt. And on Omega, you paid your debts. Always. Period. Plus, she was attacked and left for dead when Cerberus tried to take over the station. She had lost a lot of blood before anyone found her and she had slipped into a coma. While she was out, she accrued a massive medical bill at the hospital she wound up in. She was anchored to Omega for as long as it took to pay it all off.

The only thing that kept Roz from falling into depression and total despair was her naturally positive personality and bright outlook on life, not to mention a really high threshold for pain.

Personal Journal Entry: Friday 5 May 2188

It has been a relatively uneventful week; only three incidents to speak of. Monday, I got beat up by the meanest looking Turian chick I've ever seen because she thought I was eyeballing her boyfriend. The joke's on her! I delivered that same guy his order of a bunch of gay porn just last week. Haha!

Wednesday, I got jumped by some horny Batarian merc from the Suns. It seemed like the weirdo had some funky fetish for human boobs. On the up side, all the fucking he forced on me was in the ass. A good thing since he didn't bother to pull it before he blew his wad. And I can never remember if Batarians are levo or dextro… Not that it matters anymore anyway.

Thursday, I accidently walked in on some no-name gang while I was making a delivery. They decided to change up their newbie's initiation so it also included branding their gang's logo on my left cheek. It still hurts to sit. At least that didn't happen before Wednesday's "events". I think that would have made it much worse. Anyway, after laughing it up a bit and some corny celebration, that new guy started to finger me. Apparently, he thought I tasted good. After tasting me off his fingers he took a few licks down south. God, what does it take to get that kind of attention when there is no malicious intent involved? He was actually kind of cute. Thankfully, his buddies were in such a hurry. They didn't let him to take what he wanted and they all rushed off. Hell, they didn't even steal my wallet or the package I was supposed to be delivering. Black Cloud, meet Silver Lining!

I live another day. Here's hoping things improve for me.

~Roz~

After finishing her latest in what seemed like an almost infinite stream of sad entries, Roz went into the bathroom to get ready for work. After stripping down to shower, she stopped in front of the mirror. Minus the marks and scars that were a constant but unneeded reminder of just how bad her luck was, Roz was actually a very pretty girl. She had long strawberry blonde hair that she always kept in a ponytail that reached down to her butt, striking grey eyes that almost looked silver depending on the light, and freckles dotting her face. She was somewhat short for her age, but was very well endowed for her size.

She took a moment to survey this week's damage. There was a healing black eye and a cut on her face that would probably leave a new scar from Monday's beating. Both of her breasts still hurt from all the squeezing and sucking by that Batarian on Wednesday. Roz turned and cocked her hip toward the mirror. The gang brand from the previous night was incredibly sore and unless she could come up with the money to get it fixed, would last forever. She thought to herself that it wasn't necessarily all bad. The brand was a simple modified star symbol not unlike a standard looking design you would see on the wall at a tattoo shop. And since that gang was a bunch of nobodies, it wasn't likely that the symbol would carry any weight, especially once she finally got off Omega. She could play it off as the result of a drunken party night.

That thought led her to realize that it was not very likely she would have to explain it to anyone. There wasn't anyone in her life that would be looking at her bare cheeks in private, and Omega wasn't known for its swimming facilities. Suddenly, she was gripped by the one thing in her life that did manage to get under her skin; ever-present loneliness.

She got to thinking of the closest she had been to getting into a relationship. Dan, one of her coworkers, was a big clown. They had gotten to know each other when she first started at TPS. He was always making jokes about her height, but she noticed he gave her the eye every now and then. However, he had actually gotten in hot water for harassment for being direct in telling her he thought she was "a pretty little thing with damn nice boobs and ass". Roz wasn't against him saying it, hell it made her feel good to know someone thought that about her. But, as luck would have it, a female supervisor passing by had heard him and took offense. He got fired and moved on.

All the terrible things that happened to her on a daily basis would have driven anyone else absolutely mad. But not Roz. She lived through it all and managed to remain relatively positive. She endured only to be nearly crippled by the heartbreak of solitude. However, such was her nature, even that didn't manage to last long, and she would be back on her feet and in that cheery frame of mind.

After a good cry to let it all wash away, she showered, got dressed, and went back to her daily grind.