User:Fox Keegan

Personality
Fox Keegan is your typical, grumpy, jaded anti-hero. He's not interested in talking about his past or hearing your hopes and dreams. He believes in nothing but hard work and the information required to accomplish it.

Fox is seen infrequently. He's typically hauling freight around the core, or defending it against pirate attacks. His choices of craft lean towards functionality and practicality; not speed, strength or aesthetics.

He's only recently been observed in social settings and is more often found sitting in his cargo hold working on this or that. Otherwise he's pouring over statistics while drinking vodka at R&P or the park near his apartment trying to determine the next best profit ratios and flight plans.

A man set firmly in self-reliance; he does everything for himself, by himself. Transportation, protection and occupation; he'll resent anyone who attempts to take any away from him. He sees doing so as a direct loss of trust in his person and abilities. Dark and brooding for unknown reasons, he'll likely ignore you if you do see him, and will disappear at the drop of a hat. Seen as a grouch to most, few wish to know him, and even fewer ever get the chance.

Description
A young vulpine in his mid-twenties, his cynical behavior seems strange for someone his age. Nearly 6 feet in height, he's a square jaw, solid build and eyes as blue as the water below. Behind them lies a darkened soul of one far older than his years.

His fur: the usual burnt orange with splashes of white on his chest and face. His ears are tipped with black, matching the markings of his paws. His tail ends in the typical white color, but not the typical pattern. The white stripes up through the orange along the top of his tail for a short distance...

His clothes are typically neutral earth-tones that match the nondescript, olive-drab flak jacket. The old boots he wears are nothing fancy, but comfortable, durable and effective. His gloves: fingerless to ensure he still maintains his dexterity. An 8mm tungsten carbide wedding band resides on his left ring finger. The large band and superb finish cause it to frequently reflect light as it catches it, making it difficult to miss.

His leather hip holster carries a .45 caliber pistol. He's very protective of the piece, and fanatical about its safe usage. While none have ever seen it drawn, the custom markings and hand tooling on the exposed grip, hammer and rear sights speak volumes to firearm enthusiasts.

History
No historical information is available upon this character. Fox avoids/ignores any attempts to reveal any such data.

Trader
Scurvey Marinelli (Or ‘Mar’ as Fox calls her) was picked up after a good long period of casual searching by Mr. Keegan. Growing irritated by so many free spirits looking for employment, all with stars in their eyes, Fox was about to stop looking and hold fast to his self-reliance.

While stopping for a drink in the tavern on Steppe, he looked up from his flight log when a young cervid’s mouth got her into a hot spot with a suitor looking to impress. Her admirer’s actions weren’t up to her standards and she made sure to let him know. This, coupled with her demand to be left alone, did not sit well with the young buck. Keegan read his actions but despite Fox’s movement to intervene, Marinelli had the assailant on the table with a blade to his neck in record time.

Impressed, when Mar looked up from her attacker with a glare and asked, “The ‘ell do you want?” Fox just smiled.

Fox was no less impressed after the long conversation the two had concerning trade. When Mar mentioned she was in look of work, and Fox finally mentioned he had need of a savvy trader, the deal was sold when Mar considered his offer and responded with, “I’ll ‘old up my end of th’ bargain. I’ll expect you ta do th’ same.”

The two work quite well together and respect each other greatly, but one would never guess after casual observation. If they’re not casually insulting each other or discussing ship operations and trade routes, they’re simply barking updates and reports. Work is work…

…and play is play. Mar loosens up as much as Fox when she drinks, and enjoys the booze as much as her captain. The only difference is the poison of choice: Rum.

Navigator
Fox is still casually searching for a competent navigator, or one that can learn and won’t drive Mar and himself absolutely insane.

"Deus Ex Machina"
In an unusual feat, Marinelli caught Fox quite off-guard upon one stop at Eltsina. Putting him on the spot (a dangerous gamble) she presented him with the figures she had drawn up given the current cash flow, reserves, and a series of modifications to a Cetacea class aircraft to increase potential profits for future endeavors.

The configuration of the craft was one Fox had not yet considered and made the trade ship far more attractive to the eyes of the vulpine. While Fox had been running numbers between a Hades fighter, Bolo fighter/bomber and Cetacea freighter, he had been leaning further towards the former two than the last. His preferences were based upon installing similar upgrades into each craft to equal comparison.

Mar had taken the Cetacea baseline and simply neglected to install large guns that would take up a great deal of space. She instead used improved ammunition to compensate for firepower. The resulting craft had far more cargo capacity and only slightly less firepower.

Greatly impressed by the time and effort Mar had invested into the schematics and even more so at the final result, Mr. Keegan applauded the craft's potential and promised to consider the concept for future purchase. Emboldened by the unusual affable reception of her idea, Mar then raised additional figures of the current cash reserves, affordability of the craft only seen at their present location, profit margins and close proximity of required upgrades. Fox was a bit overwhelmed, and belayed the scheduled trip into the southern shipping lanes for a night.

The next morning he carefully parted out the "Conviction" and traded her in for a Cetanea, much to Marinelli's stifled delight. Both stood quite in shock at the first glances into the cavernous, empty cargo bay of their new aircraft.

As Mar began making custom modifications to further increase the hold of the trade vessel, Fox wandered to the outside and began to scribe along the hull. Given his long period of indecision and deliberations upon which craft to next purchase to continue his occupation as a denizen of the skylanes, this craft's appearance and endorsement at the hands of Marinelli was befit only one title: "Deus Ex Machina".

"Conviction" (Lancaster)
Dubbed the 'Conviction' after the determination shown from both Fox and Mar while attempting to decide upon the craft in this cost bracket.

Running the numbers, Fox was more than confident that the Requin of the same tier was fast enough to provide additional profits despite its' smaller cargo hold. Mar held that such figures were unreliable and did not take into account factors Fox found negligible. Mar favored the Bullfrog, a far larger craft with much larger cargo capabilities that Fox found incapable of defending itself.

The two were seen (and heard) 'discussing' the eventual upgrades in several locations. While Fox clearly wanted a faster craft that looked impressive and Mar obviously wanted a craft more suited to her profession, the two considered the Lancaster for it's synergy between both combat and cargo capacity.

While the final decision was most definitely up to Fox, he could not ignore the respect he has for his crew mate and her decision making processes. Plus...the Requin has lousy maneuverability.

"Byblos" (Nomad)
A difficult decision, Fox began flying a Nomad. While originally disappointed with the potential at being left relatively defenseless against pirates with the Nomad's weak combat capabilities, he 'bit the bullet' and decided to increase profits before his next vehicle upgrade with greater defense capabilities.

The nomad proved more than capable in defending itself and Keegan quickly became well acquainted with the tail rake maneuver. He soon learned several other combat skills to compensate for the absence of a front firing arc.

Christened 'Byblos' after the ancient, seafaring trade vessel.

"Cerberus" (Mastiff)
His first new ship purchase, Fox decided to find a blending of cargo capacity as well as firepower. The mastiff was a logical ship choice. Fox quickly realized he needed to find new ways to turn his craft sharper than it was designed to do when he started engaging pirates looking to relieve his cargo from him.

After some adjustments to the craft and quick epiphanies, Cerberus fended off all who challenged him. The name was chosen due to it's close relation to the model's name.

"Redemption" (CR-4P)
Like so many others, the first craft Fox was ever seen along the skylanes was a CR-4P. Never satisfied, Fox immediately began looking to upgrade, but was more than pleased with its' ability to maneuver through the skylanes and fend off those who thought his cargo might make an easy score.

Fox will not elaborate on the reason he chose the name for this craft.