HMS Caravecchio.

[The Saltex Brujo]

The Colonies
There are ten planets, eighty-two moons and fifty large asteroids in the
solar system. By the 24th century, all of them have some kind
of human habitation. In addition, there are three city-sized orbital
space stations that are virtual worlds, Mars Orbital One, Clarke Station
(Jupiter Orbit) and Ring-Shepherd (Saturn Orbit). Together, these are
knows as the "Near Worlds." Politically fractious, differing wildly in
culture and economics, these worlds are nevertheless in regular
communication. A radio signal from as far away as Pluto can reach the
Earth in less than two hours, and a vast web of interplanetary commerce
brings ships carrying cargo and passengers to every way station
throughout this unimaginably vast human domain.
 
But some brave colonists have crossed the inconceivable distances to the
nearby stars. There they faced incredible hardships to establish
entirely new civilizations. These are known as "The Far Worlds." Recent
events in these distant colonies can never be known because the radio
signals which would convey this information travel at the speed of light
and take years to reach the Earth and the other "Near Worlds". Thus
anyone who voyages to these distant shores faces a complete unknown.
 
What drove this vast colonization was the mismanagement of the Earth's
increasingly fragile environment. One hundred and fifty years before the
time of Starhunter, the ecosystem of an overpopulated and severely
polluted Earth collapsed. The air became nearly unbreathable; great
floods covered much of the lowlands as the ice caps melted; half of all
arable land became desert; and great plagues were unleashed. Wave after
wave of colonists fled. This diaspora was chaotic and the colonies were
built without planning or coordination.
With time, new refugees from Earth became unwelcome. They risked
bringing Earth's new incurable plagues. As a matter of survival, the
colonies quarantined and became ferociously independent of Earth. New
Terran refugees were sent back. Like the settlers who ventured
to North America a few centuries ago, these desperate people took a
huge risk in the hope of creating a better life. They installed the
crude, recently invented anti-matter drives of their time on old
interplanetary ships not designed to handle their great power... and on
these "Mayflowers" they set out for the stars.
Now, in the twenty-third century,humankind is even more technologically
advanced, the master of a vast territory. But it is also fractious,
chaotic and culturally regressive.
The Orchard
A secretive agency created by worried governments to find out all they
could regarding "The Divinity Cluster" and its implications. The
Lunar-Terran Federation designated them under the code "The Orchard".
They are to accomplish their mission by looking for clues of alien
intervention in human affairs. Also, they are to control people who are
meddling or making progress in this area.
Lucretia's father, Darius was a leading member of the Orchard. Luc
herself is aboard the Tulip as a helpful spy and is an Orchard member
out of a sense of duty to her father. Since Dante's Bounty Hunter
missions traverse the "Known Worlds" and beyond, there is a high
probability that more on the Divinity Cluster will be revealed.
When Dante's wife, Penny, realized that she was pregnant with Travis,
she conducted what she believed were benign genetic experiments on
herself. She was under contract with "The Orchard" to work on the
Divinity Cluster genes before they were known to be particularly
significant. She believed the attempt to trigger the newly discovered
alien genes had no effect.
The Divinity Cluster
"The Divinity Cluster" is a sequence of four specific genes hidden
within the human genome. The existence of these four genes was a
surprise to science because they are not human and can only be triggered
by the use of high-tech instrumentation.
These two facts led scientist to come to the rather inevitable
conclusion that these "alien" genes were deliberately set only to be
triggereable by humanity when it reached a high level of
evolution. It is believed that the "alien presence"
that implanted these had plans for humanity once it became a highly
scientific culture. The plans are unknown but "The Orchard"
was created to answer this question by looking for clues of alien
intervention in human affairs so as to answer that question and control
any people who were meddling or making progress in this area.
The Raiders
RAIDER HISTORY "The Raiders" were formed from the once mighty Terran
military. They originated with a Special Forces unit called "Black Ops."
They were also subject to covert bio-military experiments that killed
many and left the survivors sterile. The experiments proved an
embarrassment to Civil Authority and the survivors were denied help, let
alone an admission of culpability or an apology. They revolted, began
raiding local worlds to take care of their needs and bonded against all
civilization in the process. A less than merry band of outlaws, their
raids were bloody, designed to exact revenge on the rest of humanity.
Because they could not reproduce as a result of these experiments, "the
Raiders" stole young children to continue their cause.
Early in their history, "the Raiders" tried to take over Mars but after
many battles, the Martian military could not be defeated. "The Raiders"
made a conscious choice after that to exist as a nomadic culture, feared
pirates who's ships could assemble as floating cities (called
"Gatherings" ) and break apart to stage raids when needed. They
organized large-scale criminal activities involving drugs, weapon
smuggling, extortion and futuristic rackets, such as illegal genetic
manipulation.
The Raiders are divided into many factions, known as clans. Sometimes
there are battles between the clans and vendettas to be settled. But
when outsiders threaten, the clans unite.
RAIDER VEHICLES "Raider" vehicles are sleeker than shuttles and are
reminiscent of 20th century fighter jets, except that the
vehicles operate inside and outside of atmospheric environments.
They mount a variety of weapon turrets. They also have aerodynamic
surfaces (like wings or rudders) to make them more maneuverable and thus
capable of attack, in an atmosphere. They are hybrid atmospheric/space
vehicles with small nuclear rocket engines and some wing surfaces.
The Raider vehicles descend from orbit, raid an outpost, then head back
with their goods. When in space,  "Raider" vehicles can join
together to form a huge body capable of interplanetary travel. These
larger bodies are thought of as "Raider cities." The "Raiders" cannot
obtain the thousands of graviton coils necessary to equip this whole
structure so they instead slowly rotate their "Raider cities" to provide
artificial gravity.
The Tulip
Dante's ship, the Tulip, is central to the series' design.
The Tulip was once a luxury liner capable of doing the many month
long journey on the orbital arc between the Moon (transit station for
Earth) and the colonies on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn
(approximately 150 years ago). In it's time, the Tulip was the
equivalent of the great luxury steamships in the early 20th century;
designed with chandeliers, posh woodwork, Victorian staterooms to brass
rails and red velvet.
The combination of Victorian decor and high-tech equipment in the Tulip
is bizarre. In its early days, artificial gravity was provided by a
large centrifuge, which still spins inside the Tulip for no particular
reason. At that time, "up" and "down" were different. This accounts for
some of the strange angles and orientations of the corridors, staircases
and rooms in the ship
The Tulip was decommissioned after 80 years of service and rotted in
Jupiter orbit for another 50 years, too old to be stripped for valuable
technology. The Tulip was eventually acquired for scrap by Rudolpho,
whose salvage crew began taking her apart. Rudolpho then fell into the
bounty hunting business. Rather than build a proper ship for the
purpose, the wealthy but cheap Rudolpho stripped an outdated military
ship (also in the scrap heap) grafted some of its equipment onto the
Tulip, and then handed the final piece of work to Dante.
The crew uses only a fraction of the Tulip and most of the ship is
closed off and abandoned. The Tulip is in a constant state of disrepair
and Dante rarely has the money to fix it properly. Luckily the
tremendous redundancy of the Tulip and Percy's ability to jerry-rig a
fix to most problems allows the intrepid crew to survive and even get
the bad guys most of the time.
 
The TULIP's name is derived from letter stenciled on its hull decades
ago. They used to read: Transit Utopia Cruiseship Lines. The only
letters that are still visible are: TUIP.
Most space vessels travel only within the solar system. To do so they
use plasma propulsion systems powered by thermonuclear reactors. This
allows voyages to even the outer planets that last only a few months.
The Tulip's uses this sort of propulsion for interplanetary travel.
The Tulip has a main bank of thermonuclear rockets on one end. When they
are turned on, they propel super hot hydrogen out from huge rocket
nozzles. When the engines are turned on to full power, a shock wave
rides out with the hot hydrogen.
The crew refers to this propulsion system as the "main engines" or "the
mains". To distinguish these rockets from the interstellar system
discussed below, the crew refers to the interplanetary rockets as the
"thermonuclear engines".
To maneuver, the Tulip has several small rockets positioned at various
points on the exterior of the hull. When these fire, they rotate the
Tulip to face in a new direction. The main rockets then fire to propel
it on the new course. When the Tulip is approaching a planet, its
engines will face in the direction of travel. They will fire to slow the
ship for insertion into orbit. The crew refers to these rockets as the
"vectoring rockets" or "maneuvering rockets."
Interstellar propulsion systems are also available. These systems are
based on matter/antimatter reactions. These engines are many times more
powerful and efficient than thermonuclear engines, but they are
also extremely dangerous. A large amount of antimatter has to be
contained in a magnetic field because, should any of it come in contact
with regular matter, an enormous nuclear explosion will result,
annihilating the space vessel and anything near it.
These systems are assembled and fueled in special space stations that
orbit near the sun. They use enormous arrays to collect solar energy.
These great amounts of energy are used to produce the antimatter. Once a
system is fueled, it is fueled forever. The only way to safely dispose
of the antimatter is to run the engine or to send the whole apparatus
crashing into the sun.
Character Biographies
DANTE MONTANA
Dante Montana, 40, is a reluctant bounty hunter (his dream wasn't to
become a bounty hunter at all). Ten years ago he was an agricultural
engineer with a wife and son on a colony on Titan. "Raiders"
destroyed the homestead Montana had built killing many, including his
wife and Percy's parents. Then they kidnapped his son who was just
a baby at the time. Montana is haunted by this tragic past and is
sustained by a deep rage beneath his stoic surface. He is determined to
find his missing son no matter how long it takes. Even after ten years,
Dante's convinced the boy is still alive. Through the missions he is
assigned, Dante covertly searches space for his lost son. Without
Rudolpho, Dante would never have the means of finding his kidnapped boy.
Although tormented about his family's disappearance, Dante has a
rough-hewn charm and charisma. He's wary and cynical about all authority
figures but remembers what is important in this life and retains a soft
spot for the underdog.
PERCY MONTANA Dante's niece, Percy Montana is a survivor of the "Raider"
assault that killed her parents. Dante is the only relative she has in
the universe and for 10 years Percy has trusted him like a father. They
haven't been apart since. As a key member of her uncle's bounty hunting
crew, Percy has a genius level understanding of things technical. She
(along with the computer Caravaggio) maintains the functions of the
ship. Though more or less an adult, Percy suffers lingering trauma from
the death of her parents. Her childhood and teen-aged years were forever
robbed from her by the Raiders. She has developed a cheeky, smart-ass
attitude to authority like her uncle. She is highly intuitive and
inventive when it comes to her job aboard the ship. Percy's wild-eyed,
"more adult than adult" youthful confidence and unusual intelligence
often get her into trouble. But her quick tongue and daring intuition
provide her with the means to squirm out of trouble just in the nick of
time. She's cynical, a tomboy who can switch over to feminine charm in
the blink of an eye. She has a sometimes predatory sexual awareness.
Percy's sexual edge is an ongoing, alternately dramatic and humourous
issue between her, her bewildered uncle, and the rest of the crew. After
Percy's time in hyperspace and the loss of her uncle, the conflict is
now transferred to her cousin Travis, the new pilot of the Tulip and
leader of the starhunters.
LUCRETIA SCOTT Lucretia 'Luc' Scott, mid-thirties, is a new member
of the Tulip. A munitions expert, Luc is appointed by Rudolpho as
Dante's partner in making criminal arrests. She is also the ships
unofficial science officer. Dante is made to understand that she was
assigned by Rudolpho, the owner and director of the bounty hunter
operations, to assist their profitability. But he soon suspects there's
more to it than that. Luc is a decorated former Space Marine Ranger
and possesses a wide ranging knowledge of clandestine military
activities.She is tough, disciplined, intelligent, and ruthless
operative for an ultra-secret quasi-military organization, known as "The
Orchard". She has been charged with gathering information about the
possibility of a secret alien presence in the galaxy and has been
secretly assigned to Montana and his crew because of the random nature
of the operations. She is on a long range mission to find evidence of
certain alien artifacts and the reason for their presence.
CARAVAGGIO Caravaggio is the ship's 150 year-old AI unit
manifested as a hologram. Caravaggio is an icon of the entire
ship's computer systems and exists only in electronic form. Since
Caravaggio possesses the entire scope and breadth of human knowledge, he
doesn't suffer fools lightly. This aspect of his character reflects the
fact that, in his former cybernetic life, when he ran the Tulip as a
once great luxury liner, his software was configured as a Parisian
"Maitre D'". Although he was minimally retrofit to support the ships
current bounty-hunting function he still maintains the haughty
superiority of his former ego. Caravaggio has a sharp, witty tongue and
freely uses it to criticize whomever he "feels" like. He has a
running, combative relationship with Percy mainly because he is in
constant need of maintenance. He frequently advises the troubled and
troublesome Percy about the ways of the world and the unreliable human
psyche. Caravaggio's need for repairs and upgrades occasionally
compromise their safety, with unforeseen results.
RUDOLPHO DELUNA Rudolpho DeLuna, mid-fifties, is the crew's dispatcher.
Earth-based, the gruff, irascible, and no-nonsense Rudolpho also owns
the ship that Dante, Percy, and Luc use. Rudolpho is owed plenty of back
payments on the Tulip, and constantly hassles Dante and the others to
take on more assignments. Like a slumlord, he repeatedly deflects pleas
from Dante about more money to fix up the ship. Rudolpho also provides
the initial profiles that set up each episode's new fugitives. Of
course, Dante has no choice but to accept every bounty. Rudolpho returns
in season two humbled by economic hardship (three ex-wives and
several children who require financial support). He reluctantly joins
the crew of the Tulip in their bounty hunting missions.
DARIUS SCOTT Darius Scott, mid-fifities, is Luc's brilliant,
arrogant, controlling father and is the senior executive in "The
Orchard". Darius's obligation is to find out what the purpose was in
placing these alien genes in the human genome and to control the outcome
for the "good guys". One cannot tell if Darius has become so ruthless in
his search for answers, and for control, that he's no longer one of the
"good guys"; or if his willingness to sacrifice those nearest to him is
simply the inner strength of a man seeking the greater salvation of
humanity.
TRAVIS MONTANA Travis Montana, mid-thirties, is a haunted and
hunted bounty hunter, piloting his ship the Tulip through space with his
small crew of social misfits in pursuit of interplanetary criminals.
Travis suffers frequent bouts of guilt about his "Raider" past and tries
to keep the violent nature he cultivated there in check. He has also
vowed to find his father Dante, who we met in the first season as he
embarked on interstellar travel to hunt for criminals and search for his
lost son, Travis.
CALLISTA LARKADIA Callista 'Callie' Larkadia, early thirties, is a
weapons expert and former Mars Federation special forces officer. Callie
is a survivor with an uncompromising streak and something to prove. She
has joined the crew of the Tulip and turned to bounty hunting for a dual
purpose; as a means of using and preserving her martial and military
prowess; and as a repudiation of her privileged past which was in
conflict with her own social and political ethos. As a result of this
rejection, Callie has been disowned by her parents. Callies quirky
pathology allows her to fit right in with Rudolpho and the rest of the
Tulip crew, not withstanding some personal idiosyncrasies. Decidedly
practical and straightforward, Callie finds it difficult to understand
Percy, and has a strained but grudgingly respectful relationship with
Marcus. It is Travis that her conflicted feelings about her femininity
and her identity as a woman come into play. And like many others on
board the Tulip, Callie is also hoping to find what shes been missing
for so long; a family and a home.
MARCUS FAGEN Marcus Fagen, early twenties, is the ships technical
expert with a penchant for exaggeration that sometimes drives the other
crew members to distraction. He has played both sides of the law and was
in fact rescued by Travis from the "Raider" gang and brought on board
the Tulip.
2006StarhunterOnline
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