What’s up, Cosmic Nomadics! For those of you new here, my name is Deno Wynn. I’m traveling across the galaxy and exploring the little-known parts of the planets that make up our civilization. Welcome to the Halcyon Daze.
I’m here on Jargun-Ba in the underground city of Jornal learning about the secret lives of the resilient few Jargunians that still live on the planet.
Today, I’ve got a special story for you. Our guide Ka’vex has kept me alive and, mostly, unscathed while showing me around Jargun-Ba. After a lot of pleading, begging, and annoyance on my part, he agreed to share the story of how he got to where he is today.
This is going to be kind of an autobiography, so I’m going to transcribe Ka’vex’s words as accurately as possible. So, sit back, relax, and take in the story of Ka’vex.
I was born on Brarcolyn to a single mother. Never found out who my father was. I suspect my mother got pregnant with an Overseer, but she denied that up until she died when I was nine. She gave me two names, my legal name, and my Jargunian name.
Despite her flaws, my mother was a good woman. She told me about our real home planet and a lot of the stories from it. She only used my Jargunian name when it was just the two of us at home. It was like, a special thing between us.
After my mother’s death, I didn’t have anywhere to go. There aren’t a lot of places for an orphan that isn’t a Black Palace group home or one of the gangs. I chose the gangs.
Started out picking pockets, but then I hit puberty and my size made me more valuable as muscle. Through my teenage years, I messed up a lot of people. I won’t mention the name of the gang. We separated on good terms and I want to leave it that way.
There was an Overseer that got into some serious debt with us. I got sent to “encourage” some payment out of him. He pulled a knife on me and we got into it. By the end, he’d fallen on the knife a few dozen times and I needed to leave Brarcolyn for awhile. I pulled a few favors and got my hands on some fake identification. Then, I bought passage on a pirate vessel heading to Myero in the Mehdias JX7 System. I figured that it would be an easy place to disappear.
I’d gotten some names I could contact for work with the Subspace Underground there, but I was nervous. The pirates might have a code but when you ran with the gangs honor was hit and miss. When I made it planetside I walked into the nearest Black Palace Military recruitment center and signed up. I figured if the authorities were looking for me the last place they’d look is inside a Black Palace uniform. I should’ve stayed with the gangs. There’d be less blood on my hands.
The infantry was where they put me. It made sense. I was big, mean, and ugly, which meant they thought I was stupid. There was no reason for me to convince them otherwise. All I’d ever been good at was hurting people. At least with the Black Palace, it was good and legal.
I did a lot of bad shit and witnessed even worse. It started to make me numb after a while. You never know what you’re going to get used to seeing until you look back on the life you’ve led and realize you’re the bad guy. When they offered me a promotion to Sergeant I handed in my resignation.
It had been ten years since I’d stepped foot on Brarcolyn. By the time I’d gotten back most of my friends were either dead or neck-deep in the Maw. Which meant they were as good as dead. I hooked up with a pirate crew and ran with them while using the money I’d saved from the military to open a little pawn shop. The shop was just a front. A way for me to get back into the swing of things in Unspace while looking as legitimate as possible.
Then, my number got called for a mining crew and I got shipped down to Jargun-Ba. I could’ve run again, but I was tired of running. Brarcolyn was where I was born. Besides, if I could survive the shit they put me through in the Infantry I was sure Jargun-Ba would be as easy as floating out an airlock.
We shipped down with thirty miners, a dozen Fargulkian security, and an Overseer. The previous crew had done the scanning and thought they’d found a good vein of chaosium. Something like a hundred kilos from the data they’d gotten. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you take into account that people get killed over a few flakes of the stuff then it paints a different picture.
Everything was already set up. Charges had been placed for rapid excavation. All the equipment had been readied for use. It was supposed to be a cakewalk of a score. We were all going to walk away with some serious BPUs for a bonus. Those who survived did.
What we didn’t know is the previous overseer had detected a large mass of biological matter present in the same chamber. Rather than risk himself and his crews' clearing percentage, he took the finder’s fee and set us up for the fall. The overseer on our crew didn’t bother to run a scan, and when we blew the chamber dozens of cyanovores flooded out.
We weren’t ready to face the onslaught. Most of my team were overrun in seconds. Myself and a dozen others fled to the walls of the camp while the cyanovores feasted. When they were done with those left behind they came for us.
The sounds of fighting and the smell of fresh blood drew more of them in. Cyanovores tend to bunch up in areas. You might walk around the planet for days without seeing a single one. But when you do, there’s usually others close by.
The compound was under siege for months. We called for an extraction but it was determined to not be safe enough to land. When they breached the walls I fled into the jungle. That’s when the Jargunians found me.
Like you, I’d been told Jargun-Ba was a dead planet. It surprised me as much as anyone when I was approached by a hunting party willing to take me in. I was badly injured, but when they saw I wasn’t changing they took me in and nursed me back to health.
I spent several months recovering in Jornal. While I was there, I learned everything I could about life down here. When I got better, I was tempted to stay. I liked the simple life. But, something called me back to Brarcolyn.
After scouting out one of the compounds for several months I finally saw my way back to Brarcolyn. A new crew arrived to repair the compound where my crew had died. They almost shit themselves when I walked in, still dressed in the ragged clothes I’d fled in. I fed them a story about surviving in the jungle on my own and they bought it.
They took me back up with them and I got my bonus. Used it to buy my ship and I started smuggling goods down to Jornal. They paid me with chaosium and abysallite they dug up while excavating. The contacts I made with the pirates and Subspace Underworld kept the credits rolling in.
Now, I do whatever I can to supply them. Medical supplies, food supplements, whatever they need. Bringing you down here is my way of getting knowledge of their existence out to the general public. The Overseers on Brarcolyn know they’re here. So does the Black Palace. They just ignore the Jargunians because they aren’t useful.
I hope that by sharing their stories people start to care about them. They deserve to be recognized. And that’s why I brought you here.
Ka’vex and I chatted for some time after he shared his story. There are some details he kept to himself, and I respect that. I hope you got something from his words because I most definitely did.
Signing off for now, and making a toast to the stars for a free Jargun-Ba.
Deno Wynn
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