FORTUNA SYSTEM

AMARANTHINE

LATE AUGUST 2188


IN THE BLUE PERPETUAL TWILIGHT of Amaranthine, one tread carefully. With land and sky almost identical in hue and shade, one could easily get lost. Pirates used this world to hide on sometimes, but many often cited the cold light, the oblique shadows and moaning winds as 'unsettling', and none stayed for any longer than they needed.

Some, however, weren't bothered at all, and this planet became a haven.

Of course, nothing lasts forever.

The pirates holed up here where typical of their breed that so infested the Terminus, and there was no need to give them anything other than a cursory note – a motley crew, most criminals of various stripes, a few techs, a few ex-grunts, a few ex-corporate security, ex-police, all murderers, of various perverse and lurid persuasions. What they called themselves is irrelevant, since they ceased to exist as an entity shortly, but for history's sake they were known as "Shackle's Shockers", led by Captain Jarvis Shackle, captain by dint of being slightly more intelligent than the most intelligent of his crew, which was not saying a great deal. His latest scheme had involved hijacking a transport full of girls and their chaperones of the Terra Nova Highland School of Anthropology – on a field trip – to hold for ransom. They were all daughters of the well-to-do, all twenty-six of them and the take, should all parents agree to the ransom, would be substantial. He'd made his demands and waited. After a while, his men started getting antsy, none having seen females in a good while, and it was all he could do to keep them in line.

Fortunately for the girls, and less so for the Shockers, the parents instead pooled the ransom money, and placed a call through intermediaries for a remedy.

That remedy was known as Winston Black, although he rarely used that name any longer.

His old comrades - gone now - had called him "Dukkha", a Buddhist term for suffering – a joke, as Black was preternaturally calm most of the time. Eventually, it was shortened to 'Duke', as often happened. He neither liked nor disliked the nickname. He answered to it simply out of deference to comrades he respected. He was not a Buddhist, although he admired its teachings. As a child and young man, he'd been subjected to a disease called Yager's Palsy. It was perfectly curable, but it took a long time to correct itself, and as such he was bedridden for a great deal of his youth. With little to occupy himself, he became a voracious consumer of literature.

His philosophy of life – and he believed those without one were incomplete and pathless – was a polyglot of many religions and philosophies, and he'd had a simple rule for each: if it contained that which he felt relevant to the experience of living, of life, it was to be adopted and adhered to, otherwise discarded. He claimed, eventually, to understand much and know little, which he then claimed made perfect sense.

His comrades, of course, called it "Dukism". They also claimed it made him supernatural at poker, as he never lost a game. Under his N7 designation, someone in his old team had painted an ace of spades, and Black had simply allowed it to remain. When asked, he had simply called it 'stylish' and left it at that.

Black disdained guns, although he was an expert with many. An "Infiltrator"-class N7, Black carried a metre-long sword forged from diamond-hard krogan-mutsak steel with a molecular-honed edge that even kinetic barriers could not stop. Several other smaller blades of similar construction he carried like pistols. Black drew them only when necessary, and no target he'd ever been contracted for had ever escaped him.

The Alliance ships that heard the distress beacon from Amaranthine found thirty-three dead pirates and twenty-six frightened, cold, hungry but otherwise unharmed students.

They had told of a figure in black that had appeared in their midst, quietly told them to remain calm, and then locked them in. Approximately half-an-hour later, the same person had unlocked their door and told them all was well, then he vanished. Before he left, he'd handed the head teacher/chaperone a playing card.

On it was the ace of spades.

The Alliance captain of the rescue vessel kept it as a souvenir.

Winston Black was last seen on Illium hunting an 'embarrassing' asari matriarch. The matriarch would never be found again. Winston Black, the Duke, would also vanish.

But he would be found.