The Chained Angel

Forging the Links

We are an intelligent species. We have done so many things in the short time we've been alive on this Earth, compared to many other things on it and compared to the age of the Earth itself.

But we're stupid. We want to own everything and encounter everything that the universe has to offer, yet in the end we had to accept help from a species that we had spent years hating. They had appeared offering peace, and we hated them because they weren't us. They were treated worse than we had ever treated anyone. Well, other than coloured people. Or homosexuals. Or women. In all honesty, we're just kinda crappy aren't we? But, though some treated these aliens with hateful disdain and disgust, some were accepting and helped teach them about our cultures and our lives while getting back information on the alien's own ideals. It was those types of people who gained the knowledge of fast and effective space travel with little yet efficient and sustainable fuel from these beings, though eventually it did get into the wrong hands. Vessels were built to improve space travel for, at first, a better understanding of the universe and mere scientific adventure, but they mass-produced these vessels to make them accessible and cheap to the public. Some, however, were stolen and, though replaced, these became the repainted and re-branded pirate and slaver ships. We colonized space, something we only thought possible in the times where it was still considered impossible, and then some dirtied it just as we have Earth. These evil and sullied people are very few, compared to those who had their eyes open at the vastness of space and the knowledge that there are other species out there that offer peace and prosperity and further technological advancements. It's been hundreds of years since man first set foot on the moon, now we are in a galactic alliance and have spread through the cosmos easily. Earth is not abandoned, oh no, but we have found acceptable habitats elsewhere as well so the overpopulation issue of the past is gone. Billions of planets, all in one alliance, and we are free to walk through them and adopt the cultures of other species. New religions were discovered and not only accepted but brought to Earth as well, our cultures have been adopted by other planets, we have co-existed with more species than we could ever wish to and we are happy.

At least, the good are. There are still the evil and the desperate, the murderers and the rapists, the child abusers and the violent, the slavers and the pirates. Some abandoned yet habitable planets have been turned into entire prison planets to harbour criminals, with some space cordoned off as Pirate territory, and people 'disappear' from space. Slavers rule people's nightmares, and children tell horror stories of bounty hunters by the campfires all over the universe. Not the type you'd expect, helping people by finding the bad, but the ones who do any job no matter the morality as long as they get paid. They're called horrendous things behind their backs, or in front of their faces by people who have no idea of their occupation. Totem is one such hunter. No-one knows that he's really a bounty hunter, since those who know him see the side of him that he wants them to. He wants them to see him as the polite and kind neighbour so that, if he gets into trouble during a job and has to lay low, his neighbours will defend him with their own personal experiences of a kind young man who would do no harm to any creature. In a way, he was using them, but that's how bounty hunters work in space now. They do other people's dirty work and trick everyone around them as long as it keeps their job and their life. They have the basic survival instinct down to a T, and they cannot be stopped when they have a mission or a job. There are many types of hunter; the lone ranger, the pack wolf, the aggressive, the sneaky, all guns blazing, swipe and stab, the controlled by a company, the freelance, the 'strictly business', and the honeypot. Some of these can be intertwined in more than two ways, but some simply cannot be combined unless you are an extra special hunter. Totem is a freelance, sneaky, strictly business lone ranger. He doesn't do the whole aggression thing well, because he's a lanky twerp on the outside. Do not see merely his form. He is skilled, he is brutal, and he will do anything for a job.