Character Profile: Gene Starwind

From his home on Sentinel III, Gene Starwind always looked up into the night sky and dreamed of the day he could roam the stars. For the time being, though, he and his partner Jim eked out their living doing odd jobs for whoever needed their services.

Then came 'Rachel Sweet' (really the infamous "Hot Ice" Hilda), who requested Gene's services as a bodyguard. Little did he know just what a life-changing event taking this job would mean. First, he discovers the case Hilda's carrying contains a bio-android. Second, his run-in with Hilda leads him on a course toward his new ticket to space: a brand new space grappler! But it doesn't come without a price. Hilda goes down helping Gene escape in the XGP. In her memory, Gene renames the XGP the Outlaw Star and gives it its rebellious red look.

Now, the Kei Pirates want Melfina and the Outlaw Star back, so Gene has become a marked man, racing through space on a course to destiny.

Strangely, though, Gene also possesses a fear of space at the same time as a desire to reach it. Five years before, he lost his father in a Space Pirate raid. He survived only because he had been thrown into the only available escape pod, and the memory of that tragedy sometimes haunts him (it also explains his hatred of Space Pirates). When he later recognizes the MacDougall's ship as one of the ships involved in the raid, he eventually adds Ron and Harry to his hit list.

Unaccustomed to space travel, Gene has initial bouts of space sickness, but once he gets over it, he learns how to fly and to fight very quickly. As captain of the Outlaw Star, he operates the combat systems. The Outlaw Star is a grappler, meaning that its primary weapons systems are centered around two robotic arms. The arms can either grapple directly or carry a weapon (such as an axe or a machine gun). The ship also carries a battery of missiles and a breaching hatch.

Even on foot, Gene does not go into a fight unprepared. Though capable of using many types of guns, his personal sidearm is a piece of archaic magic technology called the Caster. It's a gun that fires shells of crystallized Mana. When shot, the Mana casts a spell. Caster spells are especially effective against Tao magic (such as that used by the Kei Pirates) and are least effective against weapons of a similar era (Ron MacDougall, for example, also has a Caster). There are 20 different types of Caster shells (or should I say spells) of varying effect and availability. Caster shells, being of a bygone era, are rather hard to come by. The three rarest (and most dangerous) are #4, #9, and #13. It's rumored that these three can only be found on the planet Tenrei, and each comes with a hefty price tag: using one depletes some of your life force, and using them in succession is potentially fatal.

Gene is pretty much "Outlaw Star's" main character. He likes shooting stuff, drinking, and spending...uh...'quality time' with women. He runs a small, semi-legitimate business which basically consists of bounty hunting and taking any kind of odd job (provided it's not too dangerous).

He has a deeply rooted phobia of space travel (stemming from his childhood, when his father forced him into the only escape pod of a burning ship). This makes things interesting when he winds up going into space (he has to drink heavily in an attempt to keep from getting sick). But he winds up the captain of the ship Outlaw Star, which somehow keeps him from feeling confined and scared (although he's still scared of space).