Freelance Traveller

profiled by Mike Kanssen

Percy's parentage is a bit of a mystery (His mother never disclosed who the father was) whilst he was still only weeks old his mother offered him up for adoption, and Percy was adopted by a minor government official, called Bergelmir Verance. Since that time He has never met his mother and all record of her real name has been destroyed. Percy has been brought up being told he was the grandson of his guardian, and that his parents died in an asteroid strike. Bergelmir's daughter (Elli) did in fact die in such an event, possibly along with the latest boyfriend she had run off with. (A search of the records will actually show that Elli died 6 months before Percy was born). Bergelmir's wife (Sif) was a strict disciplinarian, who disappeared when Percy was only 2. At this point the whole style of his upbringing changed, Bergelmir giving him much more freedom. Bergelmir retired when Percy was 29, and died two years later.

A youthful looking blond man, Percy (encouraged by his guardian) has been racing cars since the age of 4. Before he reached his 10th birthday Percy had won the local junior cart championship, he proceeded to win it every subsequent year until he was too old to continue in the junior championships. At 13 he also started racing stock cars on the local dirt tracks, although this was the style of driving Percy preferred there was no local championship to take part in, and his guardian wisely advised him to keep on with the carting. At 17 he was offered a place in the planetary sports car series, and nearly won the championship in his first year. Rumours still persist that the crash that took him out of the championship was due to sabotage. The following year Percy got a test drive with the planets top rally team, and was immediately taken on. It took Percy 2 years to fully adapt to purpose built off road cars, but in his twentieth year he won the planetary rally championship, a feat he repeated two years later. Percy moved up to interworld competition (aged 23) with a team called Jord Motorsport, this subsector based team did much for spreading Percy's reputation in the rally world, but their machinery just wasn't competitive. (Even so Percy managed a couple of podium finishes during his time with them.)

After leaving Jord Motorsport, Percy had a short season with Nawzy Osoinks, before discovering they added illegal oxidants to their engines via fake fire extinguishers - he quit the team immediately and spent several months without a drive. Meritt brought Percy back to racing after their top driver died in a crash. He stayed with this team for 5 years until theft of their cars forced the team to fold. Percy currently drives for Starkadler Racing in the top, sector wide, rally class and is consistently in the top ten drivers. This competition involves racing gasoline engined cars on 15 planets throughout the sector. The same car must be used for all races, though some modifications (such as installing oxygen cylinders) are required for certain races, - not all the planets are earthlike! (A few are actually vacuum worlds) Of course any form of grav power is strictly banned.

Despite his excellent skill he has never actually won a championship since leaving planetary level competition. According to his many supporters he has been plagued with bad luck, numerous incidents where he was not at fault (breakdowns, crowd troubles...), have dropped him points enabling a 'lesser' driver to clinch the championship. There is at least some truth to his fan's claims - two seasons ago Percy had gained a commanding lead in the championship, when an over eager spectator named Peter Dantic slipped onto the track in front of him. Percy left the track in spectacular fashion avoiding him, and was unable to complete the season due to the injuries he received. Since that time Peter has become a private sponsor and close friend of Percy.

As well as his willingness to take risks for others, Percy will never knowingly cheat - putting him at a severe disadvantage in motor racing where many teams view 'twisting the rules' to be an essential part of the game. In his spare time Percy designs & builds novelty wheeled vehicles, as well as restoring old planes.

Percy is 5'9" weighs 160lbs, has blue eyes, and a hooked nose. He has an intricate mole on the left side of his forehead, which many people who met him find rather distracting. Suprisingly he has no scars, despite his many racing accidents. Although he is well liked by most of the racing community, normal people find his interests to narrow for more than a few hours in his company.

Age 38
155 points

ST 11 [10]
DX 16 [80]
IQ 11 [10]
HT 13 [30]

Advantages

Acceleration tolerance [10]

Hyper reflexes [15]

Rapid healing [5]

Disadvantages

Jinxed [30]

Pacifism /code of honour (won't hurt innocents) [15]

Honesty (won't cheat) [10]

reckless [10]

dislikes weapons [1]

Skills

Driving (off road racing) p/a 23[48]

Pilot single engine prop p/a 16[2]

Mechanic (fuel cell/electric) m/a 10[1]

Mechanic (gasoline engine) m/a 14[8]

Mechanic (prop plane engine) 11[2]

Engineer vehicles m/h 12[6]

Vacc suit (not zero G) m/a 10 [1]

Carousing 11[0]

Performance m/a 10[1]

Running p/h 11[1]

Swimming p/e 16[1]

Games 6 [0]