History of the Black Flag Universe

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It is said that three men can keep a secret only if two of them are dead.

Avery Shaw was working for the Galactic Marines at a top secret research station when his homeworld was attacked by Gartoli insurgents. Galactic Marine Command decided that a quick decisive response was unnecessary, and Shaw's family was killed before the insurrection ran out of momentum and collapsed. Vowing revenge on the entire Galactic community Shaw convinced his research partner Dampier Stede to help him hijack a galactic scoutship, and bringing the base's test pilot, Moracey Talon along with them, they embarked on a new career -- piracy. It was believed that ships moving through subspace could not be detected, but the new technology they had been develloping for the Galactic Marines, allowed them to not only find ships in subspace, but to catch up with them, and knock them back to realspace so they could be boarded. This uncanny ability roused the fear and envy of all who heard of it. When the Galactic Legal Alliance declared them outlawed, independant planets eagerly offered clemency and refuge in exchange for Shaw's inventions.

The crew of the Pirate Ship Revenge knew better than to accept any such offers. Knowlege can never be given away, only shared, and the more people who knew the secret, the less valuable it was -- selling what they knew would be akin to putting a price on their own heads. Instead they called themseves the Brotherhood of the Black Flag, and committed themselves to a life in space.

In spite of the drawbacks of confined quarters and a violent lifestyle, the tiny pirate band grew. Thirty years later the Brotherhood was five hundred strong, had a station of its own, and a fleet of four ships: two Destroyers and two Cruisers. Among the notable new members of the brotherhood were the easygoing and freewheeling Jack Rackam, who in the guise of a legitimate freighter captain acted as informant and spy; the sly and sophisticated Jean Marquis who volunteered his services as an expert pilot; hotheaded Torgay Blood who was rescued from the brig of a Galactic patrolship where he awaited a court-martial for assaulting a sadistic officer; and the slave boy Silver who was freed from a dismal future as sex-toy to a rich socialite from Osabine.

But perhaps the most significant addition of all was Captain Talon's baby girl, Bonnie Anne -- whose arrival marked the start of a second generation of Brotherhood. By the time Shaw died, the desire for revenge had completely given way to a community's basic needs of survival. As wanted men, with no homeworld upon which to take refuge from the deadly vacuum, the Brotherhood's only choice was to steal or die. And those who fly the Black Flag just don't give up without a fight.

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Copyright © Michelle Bottorff

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