This ship has quite the history, having a custom of changing her name whenever her current Captain, traditionally eccentric and flamboyant, decides that it's a good idea. She changes her name with a frequency that rivals how often Bretonians fall asleep whenever introduced to Libertonian sporting events such as baseball.
Her original name, when built fifty years ago, was Bruce, but was instantly changed by her first Captain, Brian Locksley, who believed that flying a ship with a man's name was embarassing. For several years she was Guinevere, until Locksley's wife went an eloped with younger man, making the vain, womanising, Captain mighty irritated at flying a ship named for an adultress. Henceforth, she was named Loyalty, and saw more than enough conflict over several years against the Mollys, until she was eventually captured, her crew dying as they bravely fought to the last man.
Her captor, Gerry McGuinness, named her Banbha, after a goddess from Irish mythology. She was only in his possession for six weeks before the Molly crew, not fully trained in her operation, and flying under the influence of narcotics and alcohol, managed to blow an engine and her auxiliary power in the mine field outside of Graves Station. The GS&M defence party monitoring the sector, instead of attacking or boarding the vessel, placed bets on how long it would take for the occupants to starve or run out of oxygen, one clever individual suggesting that the winner got to keep the ship. It just so happened that an astute sensor operator, David Whitby, correctly determined that there was, in fact, a leak on board the Banbha and that the crew would die within minutes.
Whitby took the ship, and not having license to operate her as a military vessel, and used her as a miner, now named Maggie. A few months later, he realised that the Bretonian Armed Forces had, finally catching up with their paperwork, decided to reclaim their ship. Trying to evade them, he and his gambling buddies, now under his command, attempted to rename her again, this time Lucky Lady, and repaint her as they set off to join the IMG.
They were quickly apprehended and arrested, the Lucky Lady impounded as evidence, paint still wet on her hull. She was eventually restored to her original colours, and named Reckless by her new, brutish, Captain Charlie Morgan, who proceeded to viciously kick eight shades of excrement out of the Corsairs in Omega 3 at her helm, spitting curses all the while. In honour of this, he changed her name to Elizabeth, the name of the Queen of England of the time when the Spanish Armada was defeated off her shores. He retired several years after, being of advancing age.
Her next Captain was Elizabeth Jameson, who, not liking having a ship with her own name, found herself renaming the vessel several times whenever it took her fancy, be it from combat inspiration, reading a book, or even from the order of her superiors. The only reason they didn't dismiss her for this trait was her popularity amongst the common folk, thanks to her widely regarded heroism. The ship's names in this long, glorious period included Thunderbolt, Charger, Righteous Endeavour, Erect (This was ordered to be changed), Lioness and various others.
After service under Captain Jameson, who became a famed philanthropist, the gunboat, now Vanguard, was due to be decommissioned. Fate hade other plans though, as Kusari attacked Bretonia. An economist and eccentric military hotshot, Andrew Stuart, didn't want to see her go to waste. She would now raid and harry the monetary lifeblood of Kusari's military machine.
[font=Century Gothic]The Commander - Admiral Sir Andrew Stuart
Andrew Stuart's exploits are famed across Sirius, be it his flashy Hussar piloting, his execution of the Captain of the Battleship MacDuff for mass murder, his theories on asymmetrical warfare or his wooing of the Princess Isabella.
A wildly eccentric, ridiculously positive inidividual, Sir Andrew finds himself drawn to the romance of tales of heroic pirates, playing his part as if he were in a movie or a children's game, often dressing in stereotypical, but refined and classy, pirate fashion, complete with a sword and tri-cornered hat.
Young and intelligent, raised out of poverty on Glasgow Outpost by his education and energy, he is often heard imitating ancient swashbucklers down his comm-unit. Some wonder whether he is insane or a genius. He's certainly enjoying himself.
[font=Century Gothic]The First Mate - Lieutenant Commander Allison 'Ally' MacLennan
This rather effeminate looking individual looks like that for a reason. 'He' is in fact a woman. This isn't strange because women aren't allowed in the Bretonian Armed Forces, as women are a rather common sight in Bretonian fighters, having equal treatment in the rules and in practice. However, the Queen's Ransom is no normal ship. She's a Privateer vessel, and you don't know what those sorts can get up to.
When not acting as Stuart's co-pilot in his bomber, Ally disguises herself, not particularly well, as a man. The others don't seem to notice, as she manages to out-curse the rest of them pretty damned easily.
[font=Century Gothic]The Gunner - Ensign Francis 'Franky' Douglas
A young man, who by all rights should be too young to join the military, being roughly sixteen, Franky is something of a simpleton with a talent. An orphan boy with what seems to be brain damage, Stuart picked him up on Glasgow Outpost, stupidly wasting his last credits beating some shooting-based video game in the bar. Thinking that the boy would probably starve or fall down a flight of stairs anyway, Stuart figured that the boy would be safer on a warship.
The boy, who wears an eyepatch, which he claims to be due to a bump in the head he took when he was younger. In spite of this apparent disability he is a very competent gunner, scoring marksman level results in testing. Funnily enough, he often wears his eye patch over a different eye, perhaps hinting that he's faking it or that the head wound was very bad indeed.
[font=Century Gothic]The Navigator - Lieutenant Samuel Duncan
This scrawny, prematurely grey, computer operator, in charge of communications and navigation, used to navigate for a Bowex transport, but with the advent of the war, had his old routes to Kusari rendered useless. Left broke and out of work, he turned to drink, becoming a vagrant on Planet Leeds. He was one of the first to volunteer for the Privateers, and is now rather positive, enjoying the opportunities presented to steal from those that left him a bum, and get liquored at their expense.
In spite of him having the least combat experience, he is the most ruthless of the bunch. He, being a former crewman on a trade ship himself, doesn't understand why traders value their money more than their lives. If they're that stupid, they deserve to die.
[font=Century Gothic]The Engineer - Professor Michael Oakley
The oldest crewman, Professor Oakley found himself aboard the Queen's Ransom after committing murder. Working on a new, prototype shield on Planet Cambridge as a means to help the war effort, he found out that a Green Front-aligned colleague was attempting to sell the details of these to the Kusari Naval Forces. Enraged, he didn't bother calling the police, he simply shot the spy.
This sort of vigilante killing would normally earn a long prison term, if it wasn't for his friend Stuart, whom he had made friends with as lecturers on different methods of fighting war. Similar to how the Bounty Hunters' Guild is able to offer pirates amnesty if they join them, Sir Andrew took the old man on as his engineer.
He is assisted by a robot called 'Winston', which he constantly experiments on to make it smarter, faster, better at cooking, better at cleaning, better at killing, better at chess...
[font=Century Gothic]The Marines - Sergeants Brian and John Wallace
Two large twin brothers, these two are a scary sight, the only things differentiating the pair being their slightly different scars. Generally quiet, they still manage to be intimidating with something of a twist on the age-old 'good cop, bad cop' routine, the indentical siblings often switching role as they frighten their prisoner or opponent.
Brought up amongst the criminal gangs that skulk in the dark corridors of the Battleship Hood, they joined the Bretonian Armed Forces as a way to go places. Unfortunately, whilst they liked the pay and conditions, it didn't quite fit their dubious origins, and they found themselves requesting a transfer to a more suitable unit.
Yet again, the tradition of renaming Gunboat #0503062 continued.
Having gone 'rogue', the Admiral in possesion of the Queen's Ransom decided she needed a new name, to fit her personality, and his own.
After refitting her for what must have been the thousandth time, her whole crew patching the thick armour which had yet again saved their lives (just), Sir Andrew replaced the name-plate with one that read Abrasive.
He also took out a brush, and on an ebony plaque, with gold paint, he elegantly wrote the words,
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