Ryuko Kawada

is one of the most skilled and talented gladiators in the popular bloodsport, frequenting circuits throughout Kig-Yar space, the frontier, Jiralhanae territory and even circuits in Remnant space, and the ancient arenas on the Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar homeworlds. Despite her success, she abhors her position as a slave, and those who hold power over her. Determined to fight her way out of the pits, she has passed from owner to owner, most considering her too difficult to control.

Early Life
Born on the world of Falaknuma in 2546, she was born to Shinichiro and Carol Kawada. At the time of her birth Falaknuma was encountering a period of economic hardship, as it had escaped the war intact but possessed little industry that could help in the rebuilding of the UEG. Her father, an electrical engineer, found it difficult to find work, especially since many positions in UEG space had been filled, and one of his other alternatives was enlisting in the UNSC. He instead found himself approached by representatives of the Sangheili Republic. With Sanghelios recently stabilised, they were looking for people of all trades and all races to help them rebuild their home worlds. At the age of ten, the Kawada family moved to Sanghelios for a better future.



Growing up on Sanghelios
Finding work as serfs in the state of Vadam, her father worked as an electrical engineer, repairing damage to the state's structure and the Keep itself, while teaching other serfs to do the same, while her mother worked as a low level administrator. Growing up amongst Sangheili youths, she became tough, boisterous and learned to fight early on. Growing up alongside the youths, she became fluent in Sangheili, almost abandoning her native tongue, and learned to fight like a Sangheili, becoming accustomed to using a sword. Over the next decade, her family rose the ranks of the Keep, until her father became one of the lead engineers maintaining the ancient systems of the Keep, while her mother became retainer of Keep Elder, Lak 'Vadam. Ryuko herself grew up to be tough and lean, and extremely quick witted.

Ambush
Just after her 17th Birthday, she accompanied her parents on a diplomatic mission alongside Elder Lak. Voyaging off Sanghelios itself, they journeyed several lightyears from the home world when the diplomatic party was ambushed by unknown assailants. In the chaos, Lak 'Vadam was killed, and Ryuko was separated from her parents. Most of the party was killed and those who were survived were thrown into a prisoner hold.

Those few that survived were taken to a Kig-Yar trader station and immediately sold on. Slavers bartered and traded the survivors, and soon most were in a dozen separate cargo holds going off to every end of the Frontier. Ryuko herself was sold to a Kig-Yar slaver who intended to sell her on as a servant, only after he broke her.



The Slave Pit
Stripped of all her clothing and possessions, she was bound up, and thrown into a slave pit on his vessel. Starved for two weeks during the journey through slipspace, the slaver approached her with food on the basis she would become an obedient slave. Her only response was to spit in his face. Another two weeks in the pit did nothing to change this attitude. Infuriated with his purchase, he sold her for a portion of her acquisition cost to a arena owner, who figured she'd make a fine warm up for the match ahead.

First Match
Brought to the arena a shadow of the girl the slavers bought a month earlier, she'd lost a significant amount of weight. They planned to throw her into a 'warm up' match, usually a spectacle involving one side that really can't fight, like an unarmed slave, and a powerful enemy, like a monstrous creature or a violent gladiator. Thrown into an arena against a mad and rabid Kig-Yar, armed with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and deadly claws, they expected a quick and bloody fight. They got exactly what they asked for. Initially thrown aback by the savagery of her enemy, her ferocity and determination to survive shone through. Picking up a rock from the blood splattered floor, she lunged at her attack, and in a frenzied attack, crushed his skull with a rock. Standing up in the arena, she was covered in scratches and her enemies blood. She became an instant crowd favourite. She was sold on to a Gladiator training for a sizeable fund, where she'd spend her next two years.

Gladiator Training
Bought by the Gladiator Trainer, Dacastus, she was taken to his gladiator school. Decastus was famed for training skilled Jiralhanae, Sangheili and Kig-Yar Gladiators, but Ryuko would be his first female human Gladiator. The gladiator school was housed in a complex closer to a prison in design, with each gladiator housed in individual cells. The training regimen was brutal, involving frequent physical exercise and combat training, as well as practice for battle in the arena. Gladiatorial games were rarely death matches, instead a blood sport involving bravado and shows of skill. None the less, casualties were many, and Ryuko earned more than few scars in training duels.

Discovering her skill with a sword, Dacastus focused on this, training her to become fast and skilled with a blade. However, all through her training she still showed her wilful attitude and strong desire for freedom, and multiple attempts at escape, fights with other slaves and disobedience. She was frequently punished, often in front of the other slaves, with lashings and floggings. Another common punishment she endured was the isolation cell and the 'hotbox', being thrown into a small metal box in the middle of the training yard during the baking heat of the mid-afternoon and left to swelter.

Despite the suffering and hardship, it became abundantly clear to Dacastus that she would become a gladiator of significant skill, albeit difficult, if not impossible, to control. Dacastus kept this fact a secret when she was sold on.

First Master, First Fight
Entertaining the visiting merchant, Taramanus, he displayed several of his best gladiators, in hopes of selling some of them. Taramanus became intrigued by this young human. Fighting against one of Taramanus' own gladiators, a Kig-Yar, she easily bested him and claimed the victory, humiliating the Kig-Yar in the process.

Sedating Ryuko, Dacastus then sold her on to Taramanus. She came round by the time Taramus was in the next system and only then did he realise why Dacastus was so desperate to be rid of her. She immediately caused immense amounts of havoc on the ship, before being returned to her cell.

Despite difficulties in handling her, Taramanus got her to her first booked match, a fight in a small arena on some backwater world. She quickly proved skilled, toppling the local champion with contemptuous ease and then aggravating the crowd. Taramanus grabbed his earnings and fled with her. Her first arena fight, with the baying of the crowd, and the rush of the adrenaline made her feel alive, more alive than she had in a long time. Taramanus booked her into a number of fights on several different worlds, with Ryuko winning each and every one.

Taramanus would bring her as a special exhibition to the Bloodied Profit, a mining vessel that had been heavily modified into a pirate warship and mobile arena. She'd fight a number of rounds in the blood soaked arena here. Still a rookie, she won most of them in close scrapes. Watching from the side lines was the veteran gladiator Tal 'Zerex. Impressed with the attitude of the young gladiator, he wasn't quite as impressed with her skills, but his curiosity was piqued when she insulted the crowd in Sangheili. When she was taken down to the slave pits, Tal sought her out and introduced himself, then derided her fighting skill. At first offended, she tried to brush him off, but Tal would persist. Having heard Tal's name since she was placed into gladiator school, she knew he was famous, skilled and well known, and finally decided she could learn plenty from him, so she accepted and he took her under his wing. In the few weeks of fighting on the Bloodied Profit, Tal imparted his experience to her, sharpening her skills and improving her fighting style. Ryuko was thankful and became good friends with Tal, referring to him by the Sangheili honorific 'Ser Tal', though she mostly used this to tease him since he had left behind most of Sangheili society and culture. However, Ryuko came to suspect he suffered from some form of drug addiction, drawing on his sometimes unusual behaviour and actions, an addiction she never wanted to share. Eventually, their time together on the Bloodied Profit came to an end, as Taramanus ventured to other arenas. Ryuko wouldn't see Tal again for years.

Impressed by her martial skill, and her ability to play an arena crowd, Taramanus began to become confident with his latest purchase. Confident he'd asserted his control over her, he took her to a high profile event hosted after an arena match, with the intention of showing her off. She proceeded to pick a fight with a gladiator and dishonoured him by beating this gladiator in public. Ashamed, Taramanus left the planet in a hurry. At the next world, he sold her on having no intention of trying to control this beast.

The Second Master, First League
Sold on quickly by Taramanus on his next stop, bordering Kig-Yar space. Sold to the privateer Trak F'Kor, he'd seen two of her previous fights, and was convinced she was a winner. Trak F'Kor had little previous experience in owning a gladiator, but was an avid fan of the sport and was convinced he could turn her around.

Knowing her to be near uncontrollable, instead of attempting to subjugate her, he instead gave her more freedoms, and promised more if she performed well. A simple premise, but it gave Ryuko a faint glimmer of hope. She fought and trained harder than ever, and battled in a number of local circuits. Steadily earning fame, she became famous enough to enter a major league in inner Kig-Yar space. Her efforts had reaped their rewards. She no longer wore a collar, she wore normal clothing and had free run of the ship.

Coming into her first league match, she beat her opponent senseless and dazzled the crowd with her skills and fighting style. Climbing the ranks of the league, her successes began to threaten members of the Karokordo Trader Cartel, who ran a strict control of the league, by fixing results to maximise their profits.

Approaching Trak and asking him to throw their next match, Trak, intimidated by attracting the attention of the Cartel, agreed, and reluctantly, Ryuko agreed to this too. However, the cartel intended to see Ryuko 'accidentally' killed in the ring, and in the brutal match that followed, she fought to the death against a berserker opponent, eventually killing him with a sword flourish. Trak, knowing the Cartel would come for him, left before the match even ended, and was in the next star system when Ryuko landed her killing blow. Realising the kindest master she had, had abandoned her, she resigned herself to what fate had in store, as members of the Cartel claimed her as their own. Once against stripped of her belongings, she was again fixed with a slave collar.

The Third Master, Fighting on Eayn
Taken by members of the Cartel, she was passed to one of their affiliates, a gladiator owner named Kar'tra. A strict and violent master, Ryuko lacked the energy to resist. Having just been abandoned by Trak, she lost her will to fight. In her training matches she barely fought back and her will to resist her captor was non-existent.

Kar'tra, almost disappointed after hearing about how wilful and disobedient, was prepared to retire her and just sell her on as a slave, when one of his superiors in the cartel insisted on having her as part of a large gladiatorial games hosted on Eayn. Kar'tra re-instilled her fighting spirit by having several other gladiators beat her, while he stood at the side lines, accusing her of weakness and cowardice. She lacked the spirit of a warrior, and one simple betrayal broke her when any other would of lived. Finally, he insulted the 'Vadams for being too weak to protect her and her family. Its then she snapped. She immediately fought back, disarming the slaves beating her, and hospitalising them both. Entering training harder than ever, her determination to show her strength to Kar'tra, and escape this hell was greater than ever.

Journeying to Eayn, Ryuko was to take part in the Tarmaessenia games. Literally taking over one of the largest cities on Eayn, Kig-Yar athletes from across the planet, and the colonies, came to compete in traditional Kig-Yar sports, while gladiators would fight in huge spectacles in the arenas. Over the four week event she was booked to fight eleven times in different events. The events were as follows


 * Duel: The first duel on her schedule, she fought a Kig-Yar gladiator to a stand still.
 * Beast Fight: Watching people battle exotic beasts had always been a popular event, and for this fight Ryuko fought three predatory hounds from Erebus VII. Massive, feral alpha predators, these creatures were starved to increase their blood lust and set loose on Ryuko. She Butchered her way through the fight with ease but lamented having to kill otherwise innocent creatures simply trying to eat.
 * Group Fight: A six v six match, Ryuko, and other Gladiators belonging to the Cartel, fought Gladiators belonging to another coalition of traders. A resounding defeat, her inability and unwillingness to fight as a team resulted in her battling three opponents at the end of the match, and was eventually defeated.
 * Duel: Her second duel of the event, it took place close to the start of the second week. To a baying crowd, she took on a famed Kig-Yar gladiatrix, and won narrowly, suffering a deep wound to her arm. Her victory cemented her notoriety in the arena.
 * Tag team: Paired with a gladiator from the cartel's own stock, she run by single handed rushing in and downing both opponents in short order.
 * Beast Fight: The second battle against a monster pitched four gladiators from the cartel against a single Tarexxian Goliath. A huge monster, possessed of slab like natural armour and muscles strong enough to crush a car, Ryuko and the team of four evaded its lumbering claws to try and chip away at its legs, when Ryuko elected to climb its back and plunged her sword between his shoulder blades, mortally wounding it.
 * Group Fight: The second group fight pitched the group of 6 cartel gladiators against another team of gladiators from a separate conglomerate. This fight fared better, with Ryuko eliminating three enemies herself.
 * Tag team: Her second tag team matched fared more poorly than the first. Her opponents utilised a net and a long hook to pin her down and disarm her while her partner, previously upstaged by her actions, refused to help, instead taking both opponents down himself while she was pinned.
 * Duel: Her last standard duel in the arena pitted her against Sen'k, a Kig-Yar mercenary turned gladiator. He opponent was an equal in speed, skill and strength, but beat her in experience. The bout ran for nearly thirty minutes before both wounded each other and forfeited in exhaustion. Sen'K would earn her respect that day, and they'd encounter each other in the arena over the next few years.
 * Historical Reenactment: A common feature at these games, and one of the later attractions, the arena was rearranged to host a reenactment of a battle from the history of Eayn. This particular war was Fool's Landing, an attack by the forces of pirate prince Dak Tr'aas against the free traders of Tammak. The various participating gladiators were re-equipped to represent the poorly armed defenders of Fool's Landing, while the forces of the Kig-Yar military, dressed in historical heavy armour, played the forces of Dak Tr'aas. To accommodate the battle, the arena was flooded, and a fake island constructed. The pirate ships landed on the fortified island, and Ryuko, with many other gladiators, fought the military forces attempting to take the island. Ryuko herself held one of the bastions, the five major towers along the fortified harbour wall, keeping back a dozen or so warriors before eventually being overwhelmed. True to history, and in equal parts and effort to keep the gladiators in their place, the military won the battle. In line with historical event, the gladiators were stripped of their armour and clothes, chained together and marched around the arena, to the amusement of the jeering crowd. Ryuko had fought like a wildcat when they tried to chain her up, resulting in a number of scratches and bruises on top of her previous injuries.
 * Exhibition Duel: The final day of the games featured no athletic events outside of gladiatorial matches. Ryuko's skill, ferocity and presence in the arena, as well as her rarity as a female human saw her called her up for an Exhibition Duel. Facing off against a slightly older female gladiator, known only as Sabine. For all her wits, ferocity and raw talent, she couldn't beat Sabine. A sword wielder, like herself, Sabine was stoic, fast and precise, parrying and returning every blow in short order. Worn down by Sabine's strikes, she was eventually downed with a brutal blow to her gut, and left collapsed on the arena floor. Sabine had no care for a victory celebration, and dismissed her fallen enemy, then left her.

The four week celebration coming to an end, almost 4 weeks of constant fighting left its toll on the exhausted Ryuko, who bore fresh scars from the battles, and humiliation left by the mysterious Sabine. Given time to recuperate, this humiliation would fester. This would come to a head at their next battle.



Hero of the Arena
Kar'tra knew the power of marketing, so following her success and the fame earned at the Tarmaessenia games, her 'rebranded' her as the 'Princess of the Sands'. Fitted in new, finely wrought, and revealing armour, meant to evoke a feeling of royalty, and armed with a fine blade, she toured the arena circuits on Eayn and the other colonies in the star system, earning quite a following. This was followed by numerous league battles, most of which she stormed through.

She became something of a celebrity of Eayn, with the Cartel's significant might being thrown being a publicity campaign behind her, marketing her as a sponsor of products, as a celebrity at important events (Alongside her master and handlers of course) and even interviews on media outlets, many of them doctored and controlled by her handlers. Ryuko herself was disgruntled with this. She didn't want fame or fans, she just wanted to escape the pits. However, the fighting continued to keep her adrenaline flowing and keeping her somewhat content.

Her matches became spectacles, attended by tens of thousands, and her victories immortalised in legend. Just following her win in the Lameria League, Kar'tra was approached by a mysterious Kig-Yar trader brokering for a third party, offering to purchase Ryuko for a substantial sum, however Kar'tra simply laughed it off. She made Kar'tra extraordinarily rich and influential. However, it would not last.

Rumours persisted the woman that defeated her at the games, Sabine, had come back to Eayn. Returning to Doisac which was her regular haunt, her master brought her to Eayn to fight in their arenas. Since the games, Ryuko had grown stronger and more skilled, and believed she could beat Sabine. Finally, they encountered each other in the final of the Blood Storm League. Ryuko, as brash as ever, taunted her opponent.

"Gladiators like you make me sick. No passion, no flair, not even a smile in combat. I'm going to beat that face right!"

- Ryuko

"Such idle threats do not concern me. You lack the skill to defeat me."

- Sabine

The fiery and volatile Ryuko went against the stoic and precise Sabine in a battle that would go down in legend. In a battle nearly an hour, both lashed at each other, their skill near equally matched. However, Ryuko began to tire, and Sabine gained the edge, and in a few quick blows, the match was over, in a massive upset. Ryuko, the favourite, was toppled, and left defeated, the crowd booing and heckling her. Bellowing at Sabine, she simply dismissed the defeated gladiator and walked out of the ring.

Ryuko's fortunes reversed dramatically, and as Sabine rose in fame, her own dwindled. He confidence shot, she lost otherwise easy matches, and dwindled to near obscurity. Kar'tra lost signifiant amount of money on her and it looked as though he would not be able to recuperate any of it. That's when the the mysterious broker approached Kar'tra, and offered to buy her for only a portion of the original price. Kar'tra cut his losses and sold her on.

Unknown to Ryuko though, as she was sold away, a vassal of Vadam Keep, Tarq 'Gorram arrived on Eayn, searching for her. Tarq had been assigned to investigation the ambush on Lak 'Vadams delegation six years earlier, and was no closer to solving the mystery, when the daughter of two Serfs present in the delegation appeared on the news networks. Intent on rescuing her from her slavery and bringing her back to her home. Unfortunately, by the time he got to Eayn and discovered her trail, she had been sold on to the broker. Tarq elected to interrogate Kar'tra for information, and when he yielded nothing of use, Tarq executed him and attempted to follow. He wouldn't pick her trail up for another year.

The Fourth Master, Journey into the Hive
Sold to this mysterious broker, she was taken onto his ship in her slave attire and collar, then taken into deep space to a rendezvous. It was then she got a chance to see her buyer. She was escorted to the docking ring and had a clear view of the ones who purchased her. An unusual ship pulled up alongside them, a deep green in colour with an unusual vertical-style layout and numerous spines. When the ships docked with one another, Yanme'e warriors and drones left the airlock. Handing Ryuko's chain to them, the broker was given a substantial amount of money, and she was pulled, with much difficulty, across the threshold and onto their ship. She'd heard rumours in the pits about how the Yanme'e treated their slaves, and she certainly did not want to be a part of it.

Once aboard the ship, she was pulled in front of a larger Yanme'e and put on her knees. He revealed himself to be Prince Phazixal, the mate of Princess Faz'Xazal. Princess Faz'Xazal was quite a fan of the games, and had journeyed to Eayn, at great expense, several times to watch them, and became particularly drawn to Ryuko. She wanted to bring Gladiator combat to the Yanme'e hives, and wanted Ryuko, along with a few other gladiators, to head up this effort. Ryuko wasn't in a position to decline this offer.

Slavery under the yoke of the Yanme'e was different to any other she bore before this. While not collared, each and every slave, Ryuko included, were stripped of any and all clothes and marked with a pheromone scent to show them as belonging to the hive. Taken back to their hive, she was formally introduced to the princess, though their translator declined to include the numerous curses and threats Ryuko uttered.

The Princess had brought in a gladiator trainer, Reikus. A miserable old wretch, he was a drunkard and a lout, but had a long history of training good gladiators, and his services came cheap. Along with that, she bought seven other gladiators, including Ryuko's friend Sen'K. Under Reikus, the eight gladiators began to train in the sweltering heat of the hive, and fight for the entertainment of the hive in the arena built outside. Ryuko however, had lost much of her confidence and fighting spirit after losing to Sabine for a second time. Sen'K attempted to inspire her. Her strength had inspired him to fight harder in the arena, which allowed him to survive several dangerous bouts after the games. Ryuko's damaged confidence was healed, at least a little bit. Back in the arena, she was back on form.

The Princess, pleased with their performance, asked her subordinates to begin touring them on local circuits. Having been gone from the Eayn circuit for three months, her return brought some attention, but her mysterious disappearance after every match left many confused.

Princess Faz'Xazal was extraordinarily pleased with her gladiators, having every match recorded for her entertainment, and even took to having Ryuko kept in her throne room like a pet. Ryuko encountered a second wind to her career, finally coming to terms with her defeat and beginning to enjoy battle once again. However, the Princess had other plans for her. Taken to a chamber deep in the hive by two drones, she wasn't familiar with this area, and didn't understand what happening until the two drones pinned her down, and a male human was brought into the small chamber. Only then did she understand, the princess wished to have Ryuko birth more gladiators for generations to come. At this point, Ryuko had had enough. Summoning all of her strength and rage, she threw off both drones. Grabbing the closest one, she slammed it into the ground and began punching it repeatedly in the head, eventually caving its skull in. As the second recovered, it tried to lunge at her, but she tore one of the barbed limbs of the downed drone off and impaled the second drone in the fleshy and exposed neck, killing it outright. The third, releasing its slave, flew to her, trying to to subdue her, but she caught its tackle and hurled it against a wall. Planting a knee on its back, she pulled its head back, snapping its head lose and killing it. Attempting to escape, she was swarmed by responding drones and subdued. It was then the princess realised her prized pet was dangerous, violent and uncontrollable, a trait she believed would be passed on to any off spring she bore.

The Princess decided her gladiator was no longer of use. She'd established her own gladiator team, and Ryuko was no longer needed, and too difficult to control. She was scrubbed of her pheromone scent and sold to a passing trader. The passing trader intended to sell her off on his next stop, but he never made it. His ship was attacked by the pirate Char Murv.

The Fifth Master, In the Grip of Pirates
The ship of the slave trader carrying her came under attack from Kig-Yar pirate, Char Murv. An action of swift violence, the ship's engines were knocked out early into the fight, and boarding pods bore through the hull, disgorge squads of pirates. During the chaos, Ryuko languished in her cell, unconcerned by the chaos around her. Eventually, the pirates seized control and took inventory of their loot. At least fifty slaves, and plenty of materiel. As Shipmistress Char Murv personally looked over their loot, she recognised Ryuko from her days as champion on Eayn. Curious as to where the gladiator had been for the better part of 6 months, she personally interrogated her and then had her, and the other slaves taken over to their vessel, and left the slaver vessel floating in space.

Once at their next port, Char Murv immediately took Ryuko to fight in an arena. By this point, Ryuko simply stopped caring about who owned her, since she'd changed masters that many times in a span of several years and instead just fought for her own entertainment. Char Murv sensed she was on to a winner here, and travelled into Jiralhanae territory to bring her from fight to fight, while eking out a life as a pirate and brigand, targeting merchants and traders.

Once again fighting in populated arenas, Ryuko felt a little more at ease, but wondered how Sen'K and the other gladiators owned by the hive got on. Despite several victories in the arena, Char was not especially experienced in owning a gladiator, and lacked the know how and connections to market Ryuko, as such she usually languished in the lower leagues, with few promotions. Char did attempt to promote her based on her gender, as few had seen a human female in the arena ring, but these promotions usually fell flat.

However, their partnership was cut short when Char lead her pirates against the wrong ship. They raided an isolated merchant ship, that was quickly reinforced by a pair of battlecruisers. Knowing she'd attacked the wrong foe, she attempted to escape, but the ship suffered a critical hit, destroying the coolant system and forcing her to eject the fuel cells. Boarded by these cruisers, she released her slaves and told them simply they'd be slaves of another, crueller master if they did not. A few among them chose to fight, Ryuko among them. As the Jiralhanae boarded their ship, the pirates and their slaves fought like lions. Char was killed holding the breach closest to the bridge, felling the first six to enter the breach before a spike grenade was thrown in, killing most of her defenders and crippling her, allowing a captain to execute her. Ryuko fought in the cargo bay, cutting down at least six Jiralhanae that attempted to pacify the rebel slaves, before a chieftain entered the fray and slammed his gravity hammer within six feet of her, throwing her against a cargo crate and knocking her out.

When she came around she had been stripped of her clothes, armour and weapons and was now in a crowded cell in the brig of one of the battle cruisers, alongside many of Char's former crew and slaves. Taken deeper into Jiralhanae territory, they were sold as slaves. Knowing how well she'd fought in the defence of the ship, she was sold as a gladiator. Purchased in a bidding war, her next owner was Calistus.

The Sixth Master, Servitude to Calistus


Calistus was all round a very unpleasant creature. He possessed little to no care for sentient life, viewing every slave as property, not people and was generally unpleasant to look upon, being unhygienic and corpulent. In Ryuko, he saw a significant pay cheque, being experienced with marketing and promoting gladiators. He initially began touring her on a number of circuits before ramping it up, taking her to leagues in the inner Jiralhanae territories.

She grew in fame, with Calistus marketing her as the "Witch-Warrior of Sanghelios", a gladiator the crowd loved to hate. Her brash nature and habit of running her mouth certainly saw that image cemented. Calistus reinforced this by equipping her in a parody of Sangheili armour, to the entertainment and jeers of the crowds. This didn't hamper her ability to pound her opponent into the ground though.

She competed in a number of leagues and special exhibitions, and began to make Calistus a substantial amount of wealth. Toured like a prize pet, Calistus kept her by his side when he rubbed elbows with the rich and powerful, even the High Chieftains of Doisac. As she rose in fame on Doisac, her nemesis returned from her stint as Eayn champion. The unusual gladiator, Sabine, originally made her name on Doisac, and returned to her original stomping ground, and to crowds of adoring fans. Ryuko began training harder than ever before, determined to defeat her opponent. Calistus saw money to be made in this fight, even if his gladiator lost, and used his political leverage to make sure both entered the notoriously difficult Bloodborne Tournament. Predictably, both rose to the top of their group, and fought in the final. Part of the spectacle was that the arena was as much opponent as the gladiators, and they fought surrounded by pitfalls and booby traps. The battle was long and hard fought, with both possessing a determination to win and incredibly fighting ability. Wearing one another down, it looked like Sabine's superior stamina would win over Ryuko's energetic fighting style, Ryuko got a second wind, and charging her foe, she manage to knock her sword from her hand and force her to a surrender. Finally stood over the foe that had shaken her confidence so much, she just laughed and left the arena. Sabine's confidence, meanwhile, had taken a blow, seeing her opponent increase in skill and capability in so short a time.



Partnership with Sen'K
Ryuko was stronger and faster than ever, and her skill in the arena made Calistus disgustingly rich, which matched his vile appearance. Calistus expanded his gladiator stable, buying several more, including Sen'K, who, like Ryuko, proved too difficult to for the Hive to control and sold on. Noticing their bond, Calistus manipulated this, and attempted to but them in team championships. Initially unsuccessful, as Ryuko was far from a team player, they eventually turned a string of defeats and narrow victories into a successful string of battles, as both settled into the fighting style of one another, and Ryuko learned to trust some one, at long last. Sen'K himself was a skilled Gladiator, and very open and honest with Ryuko, as one of the few he trusted down in the pit. Calistus entered them into the notoriously violent Karrabas Duelling Games. Sen'K and Ryuko ploughed through their foes, Ryukos energetic nature and volatile personality matched with Sen'K's more level headed approach.

Reaching the semi-final, they went up against a pair of human gladiators, both with berserker implants, causing them to fight with a maddening fury. They had both fought opponents like this before, but never two so strong and so skilled, and they quickly began to wear the two of them down. Ryuko, thinking she gained the upper hand, attempted a feint against one of her foes, but he saw through her deception and hit her with his club, breaking her sword arm and knocking her to the ground. Stunned, on her knees and defenceless, Sen'K leapt to her defence and landed a kick on her foe, knocking him off balance. However, the second fighter, seeing her weakness, lunged at her with his sword. Sen'K leapt back to attempt to stop him, but was pierced by his blade, his heart struck. A mortal wound, he fell to the ground, leaving both gladiators to finish her, until the intervention of the Enforcer, the referee, prevented them. Her best friend dying her in her arms, she refused to let it end like this and lunged at his killer when his back was turned, the blade piercing the back of his skull and skewering his head from one end to the other. His team mate, enraged, swung his club, hitting her once in the ribs, breaking most of those, then a second time, breaking her leg, before the enforcer stepped in to prevent any further bloodshed. The match was over. Sen'K was dead, and Ryuko was so badly beaten she couldn't even stand.

Recuperation
Taken to a chirugeon at the gladiator arena, she was painfully patched back together. However, she would need further surgery and time to recuperate. With her radius and ulna shattered, her femur fractured, three ribs broken, four more cracked, she wouldn't be able to fight for some time. Undergoing several surgeries, her bones were pinned back together with titanium bolts, and placed in casts. Despite the severe pain she suffered, Ryuko didn't care. Her closest friend died on the sands of the arena defending her. She blamed herself for his death, and was no in such a sorry state she wasn't of use to anyone, especially Calistus. While she was out with injury, she was costing him a significant amount of money. To top that off, Ryuko had fallen into a deep depression, and refused treatment, pain medication and physiotherapy.

Addiction to Blood Salts


Calistus waited and waited, and even after the casts came off, she was a pathetic and useless thing, with no will to battle. Calistus grew sick of her half-hearted attempts, and booked her into an arena battle. In order to coax a battle out of her, her spiked her pre-match drink with blood salts. Blood salts are a common recreational drug on Doisac, refined from the adrenaline gland of one of the more predatory creatures on the world. When used by Jiralhanae, it delivers euphoria and increased pain tolerance, making it popular before battle, but in life not native to Doisac, the drug causes violent and extremely psychotic behaviour, while leaving the user very open to suggestion. The result was spectacular. Ryuko beat her opponent into a bloody pulp and continued to attack the man long after he died. The crowd loved her unbridled thirst for blood, and Calistus' coffers quickly filled. Ryuko would pass out and come around an hour later with no knowledge of the fight and a severe headache.

Calistus would begin using the drug with increasing regularity, and Ryuko would become an unstoppable berserker in the arena. As her tolerance for it grew, she began to remember the fevered, bloody bouts, and began to quickly grow addicted to the drug. The toll on her body was extreme, and after each fight she became worn out, her body going to extremes during the bouts, and she suffered more injuries than usual. As her dependency on the drug grew, and she began willingly asking for it, and soon she was consumed in the addiction, near constantly in a frenzied state. She was unapproachable by almost everybody, except for Calistus, who conditioned her to become obedient to him, even during her psychotic rages.

Skull Taker Tournament


Impressed with her new found obedience and rage, Calistus risked her in the Skull Taker Tournament. The ultimate gamble, the ownership of the gladiator is on the line as the owner of the winning gladiator takes ownership of the losing gladiator. However, with Ryuko following his every command, and near immune to pain, he risked it. His gamble paid off, and she snagged him three gladiators on the first day alone, four more on the next.

However, Calistus had a target in mind. Tarkudus, owned of Sabine, had entered his prize gladiator into the tournament under similar pretences, and planned to take Ryuko from her owner. Both slave owners planned to strengthen their own gladiator roster with the inclusion of the other. Calistus kept the Blood Salts as his trump card however.

When the fight came about it was short and brutal. With no care for her own safety, Ryuko lunged in, suffering a grievous wound in the process. However, with the distance closed, she quickly disarmed Sabine and dislocated her jaw by punching her in the face with the duster on her sword. Readying a follow up blow which would of killed her, Calistus ordered her to halt.

When the dust settled, Sabine's deed of ownership passed to Calistus, who now owned two of the greatest gladiators in their class.

The Midnight Rescue
Sabine's first days in Calistus' roster were unusual for her. An ace gladiator, she possessed some luxuries under Tarkudus, but under Calistus she slept in the same prison like structure as the rest, and was drilled in training with the rest. Its at this point she came to realise Ryuko was addicted to Blood Salts, and her psychotic behaviour to her and those around her. Sabine attempted to talk her down, and for her trouble took Ryuko's mean right hook. Sabine's respect for her opponent wouldn't allow her to leave her to her fate, though, and she tried several times to convince her to go cold turkey.



Unknown to all involved, the vassal of Vadam Keep, Tarq 'Gorram, had made his way to Doisac in secret, using local contacts to get him onto the world undetected. Making his way to Calistus' compound in secret, he neutralized several of his sentries and made it to the edge of the training yard as Ryuko and Sabine practised. Calistus watched from close by, admiring the work of his prize gladiator as she she went through blood salt psychosis. It was at this moment Tarq broke from his hiding place and killed Calistus' two closest guards with pinpoint accurate fire from his carbine, and confronted Ryuko. He told her who he was, and why he was here. He would bring her home, to Vadam Keep, to safety. Calistus had evaded death as Tarq viewed him as harmless, and Tarq would pay for this mistake. Calistus ordered Ryuko to kill him, and she did so, without hesitation, stabbing him with her sword and cutting him from neck to navel. In his death throes, he dropped a data pad, which Sabine quietly took into her possession.

Ryuko would awake the next day in the throes of blood salt withdrawal. As she prepared her next hit, Sabine approached her and told her the events of the previous night. The memories returning to her in a flood of violent flashbacks, she screamed in horror. She killed her only means of escaping this world on Calistus word.

Cold Turkey
After coming to terms with what she did, she realised the cost of using the blood salts, and swore off them, going cold turkey. Blood Salts are especially addictive, and quitting wasn't easy, especially abruptly.

She could barely eat, and spent most nights trapped between constant pain, hunger and feeling freezing cold. Through the whole affair, Sabine looked after her, and Ryuko couldn't understand why Sabine was helping her, but at this point didn't much care. Calistus attempted to get her hooked back onto the drug, but she refused to eat or drink anything she feared was spiked. Rather than risk starving his best gladiator, he reluctantly allowed her to beat her addiction. Three months later, most of the ill effects of the drug and the withdrawal had left her system. It was at this point Sabine showed her what she had taken the night she killed Tarq.

She showed Ryuko the datapad, which contained information on the mysterious group that had killed her family and sold her into slavery. What little they had found was that they were a professional group, comprised of a number of different races. There were a few interesting details on the datapad however, such as the fact a number of bodies are unaccounted for, including her father, and four other members of the delegation, correlations in activities of this group, fragmentary information on their armament and equipment, and a sigil, apparently used by them. The sigil was a beast from Sangheili folklore, the Izebian, a monster reputed to have the ability to mask its appearance, like modern active camouflage. This information would prove useful in later.

Cost of Avarice
Having both Ryuko and Sabine on his roster made Calistus richer and richer still. However, his greed began to blind him. He was invited to bring his gladiators to a special tournament held in the frontier territories, with a high reward on offer. Calistus couldn't resist, and took all his gladiators there immediately. However, little did Calistus suspect it was a trap. His party reached the terminal point of their journey and landed on the world, only to find themselves surrounded by mercenaries. His slaves stood back and watched calmly as Calistus's guards came under a withering hail of fire. As he tried to creep back to the shuttle, the corpulent beast crawling along the floor. Before he could reach the ramp, Ryuko blocked his path. Taking the bayonet from one of his downed guards, she jabbed the blade into his throat again and again, sending arcs of blood splattering across her. He died slowly and painfully, and Ryuko watched the whole affair. Eventually his few surviving guards made it back to the shuttle and tried to escape, only to be shot down in a ball of fire. The gladiators were left on the ground, their master dead, and now lost, until they were claimed by the one who orchestrated this attack.

The Seventh Master, Near Escape
As the smoke cleared, and the mercenaries calm in to subdue the slaves, the orchestrator of this attack revealed himself. He was Themissiax, a powerful Chieftain on Doisac, with significant political and military power. While he wouldn't say why he killed Calistus, he announced all the gladiators were now his property. Nobody really wanted to argue with the chieftain and his small army of mercenaries.

Taken back to Doisac in chains, many of the gladiators, Ryuko's former friends, were sold on, apart from Ryuko, Sabine and a handful of others. Themissiax would keep them for his own ends, planning to use them as his own gladiators in the arena. A strict disciplinarian, their training was closer to the regimented training of soldiers, and more than once they were punished for mistakes.

During this time, Ryuko learned more of Sabine's past. Taken as a child from a human colony in the process of being glassed, she, and a dozen other children, were kept as sport, told to fight one another to the death. Sabine came out on top in the end, and when the war ended, and the Covenant fractured, she ended up as a gladiator slave on Doisac, where she's spent most of her life, hence her skill and familiarity with the arena. Ryuko shared her past with Sabine in turn, and both turned into close friends, even becoming a lethal duo in the arena. Ryuko laughed for the first time since her previous partner, Sen'K died, and eased back into their torturous lifestyle.



A few weeks into her tenure at Themissiax's manor, a friend of Themissiax, another gladiator owner, turned up with his human gladiator, a brute of a man. After some talks, and tours of his gladiators, Ryuko was chosen for an unknown purpose, Themissiax's guards dragging her away. She was stripped of her harness and taken down to a cell in the manor and chained to the wall. Expecting some kind of punishment, when the gladiator belonging to the visitor was ushered into the cell. Then she understand what was to occur, after all, the Yanme'e had tried to do the same to her once before. Themssiax and his friend chuckled to each other then left to dinner, leaving their slaves with one another. When they returned in an hour, they found an unexpected scene. During the attempt at forced intercourse, Ryuko caught him between her thighs and crushed his skull, killing him. Ryuko just smiled as Themissiax unbolted the cell door. The punishment was severe, and she was flogged badly by her fellow gladiators then thrown into the isolation cell for a week on minimum rations.

A few weeks later, during an annual transport between fights, something unusual happened. One of her chains had been improperly locked. Slipping her hand loose, she managed to remove her other manacle and her collar. As the transport passed the starport, she made her escape. She regretted having to leave behind her comrades, but this may be her one chance to escape. Creeping through the star port, chance was on her side. A ship of human make was docked, with only a few odd members of the crew dotted around. Taking her chance, she stowed away. However, the ship didn't take off, and she began to grow impatient, knowing it would only be a short period of time until Themissiax found her. As she say in the cargo bay, she heard the crew talk with one another. One of their number, 'Zoey' and been taken prisoner and was somewhere on Doisac.

Her time ran out, and hunting hounds caught her scent. Warriors surrounded the bewildered crew, asking them to hand the fugitive over. Initially confused, Ryuko stepped out of the cargo bay, surrendering them. Taken back in chains, she glanced back at the crew, not knowing then the enormous coincidence that was about to occur.

'Big Sis'
Taken back to Themissiax's manor and punished with an isolation cell, when she emerged the gladiator's ranks had swelled with a new member. A young woman, only a year or two older than Ryuko herself had recently been brought in. Fiery and resistant to the slave masters, and cynical and bitter with the other gladiators, Ryuko initially found her to be a stuck up bitch, but when both simultaneously went to rescue a single gladiator being beaten by two others, they began to talk. Finding they had things in common, when Ryuko learned her name was Zoey Hunsinger, she put two and two together and inquired how she'd gotten herself into this dank pit.

Zoey and her partner were the hired help on a cargo ship, the Chancer V, when it ran foul of well armed pirates. Rather than dump their precious cargo, they would eject the empty boxes, fitted with beacons to emulate their cargo (Which although Zoey wouldn't divulge, Ryuko had guessed the cargo was probably less than legal and very dangerous). Donning suits hardened against the vacuum, they threw the boxes out of the cargo bay, but something went wrong, and one of the tapes used to secure the cargo to the deck snagged her foot, dragging her with the cargo box out of the airlock. As the pirates took their empty cargo boxes, they found the human stuck to it, and decided they'd recoup their losses by selling her on as a slave. Thus she ended up on Doisac. Ryuko gave her a glimmer of hope in return for the story. She told her of the ship she stowed away on, and the crew she'd seen. It was indeed her crew.



The next day Ryuko got a chance to see her fight in a sparring match. Zoey was certainly trained, and knew her stuff, but she wasn't gladiator material, not yet. Taking her aside, Ryuko told her that her fighting style was sloppy, and relied too much on conventional methods, if she wanted to survive, she'd need to conform, and Zoey refused. Ryuko responded with a swift knee to her gut, followed by a mean right hook. Beating her to the floor, then beating her further for good measure, she told Zoey how it would be, bluntly.

"If, IF, your friends get you out, it won't be for a while yet. If you're going to survive down here, you can't just fight like this is a life and death battle. These sick fucks like to be entertained. The sole reason you get to keep breathing down here is simply to entertain them."

- Ryuko tells Zoey how it is.

Helping the battered and bruised Zoey back to her feet, then dodging her dazed counter attack, she dragged her back to the barracks to rest. The following day she began privately teaching her how to fight like a gladiator. With Sabine's help, Zoey became quite the force in the arena, with Ryuko calling both of them 'big sis'.

Unknown to both, attempts on the outside to rescue Zoey had not gone well. Her boss, Gavin Dunn, initially used the money earned from the smuggling run to buy her back and when that failed, he bet those earnings on her during her first arena fight. This bet caught the attention of Themissiax, who observed the betting of every match closely, so as to best manipulate his profit. Sending his guards to find him, he was escorted to Themissiax's booth so the two could talk. Interested to know if he was a cheater, Themissiax scrutinised him, and asked why he betted on the totally untested rookie. Dunn told him bluntly that it was easy to tell by just by looking at her, that "she's scrappy", What Dunn didn't tell him was that he knew this from personal experience. However, she became a run away victor, and her price increased tenfold over night, making her purchase impossible for the cash strapped crew of the Chancer V. Instead, Dunn began a different approach to rescuing his subordinate. Simon and Tal 'Zerex, now a member of the Chancer crew, began to spread unrest, as nothing covered the sound of gunfire like a war. Tal would begin assassinating important members of the slave trading infrastructure in the city, which began to stir up slaves. Somebody out there was attempting to stop slavers, and a lot of the slaves became hopeful. They laid the seeds of a rebellion.

In order to get the plan to Zoey, he offered good money to Themissiax to spend time with one of his Gladiators, hoping to pick Zoey. Themissiax instead offered him Ryuko, and told him to pay up front. By luck, he realised it was the very slave that tried to sneak onto the Chancer. Ryuko couldn't believe it when she was taken back down to that same cell, this time her hands and feet were chained to prevent her from killing him. When Gavin entered the chamber, she railed against the restraint, threatening to kill him, but relented when she realised it was the captain of the freighter she tried to infiltrate. He told her why he was here, and the jailbreak he'd planned. He asked her to pass the message along to Zoey, and when the day came, he promised he'd get both of them off the planet. Ryuko agreed, but told him it'd be suspicious if Gavin left without a scratch.

Ryuko suddenly decided to kindly break his nose and one of his fingers, and Dunn left to enact the next portion of the plan.

Discovery of the Demiurge
Despite the looming prospect of freedom, they'd also learned something wasn't quite on the level with Themissiax. Through the day, he'd be visited by other high ranking Jiralhanae, as well as Sangheili and Kig-Yar. This jumped from strange to odd when Ryuko spied a Sangheili entering his property while she was in the training yard. He bore a tattoo on his arm, a tattoo of an Izebian. Knowing this man was in cahoots with whoever was responsible for the attack that ended with her becoming a slave, she sneaked into the house to eavesdrop. There she overheard how Calistus was killed because he became too powerful, and of their plan to slowly seize the government away from the High Chieftains. Lastly she heard their affirmation, The Demiurge Will Rule. At last, her foe had a name. Before she could hear any more, her trainer, having noticed her absence, found her in the house and dragged her back outside to be punished. Locked in the stockade for 48 hours, Sabine crept out to give her water. Confiding in Sabine what she discovered, she vowed that she'd destroy them.

Themissiax realised Ryuko had been overheard, but couldn't simply have her executed, and her death in the arena would give him a financial loss, so he sold her on to Urugram, a collector, of sorts.

In the Claws of the Collector
Without warning, she was grabbed in the middle of training and dragged away from the compound. Her harness was unlocked, she was washed and then fitted with a collar, to be made 'presentable' for her new buyer, Urugram. Urugram was immediately smitten with the purchase and bought her straight away. Distraught by being separated from her friend, she was shipped to the opposite side of the Doisac capital. Dragged into his manor, she was dumped into a large cell, with a sand floor and various pieces of broke masonry. When she collected her bearings and studied her surroundings, she saw many other cells, with individuals in them of numerous races, in various environments. At this point, she realised she was part of some kind of exhibit. Crowds wondered between the exhibits, looking at their living inhabitants, Ryuko especially garnering substantial interest as one of the most well known gladiators. Ryuko, embarrassed by her lack of clothing and the interest heaped upon her, hid away as best she could. During one crowd, it became too much, and she tried to throw one of the broken pieces of masonry at them, and to her suppress, it shattered the glass. They hadn't thought to reinforce it to try and stop exactly this happening. Briefly escaping, she didn't get far before Urugram's guards caught her.

Realising she was far too difficult to control, he took her through his second, much more macabre, exhibit. It consisted of the stuffed bodies of dead gladiators, slaves and fallen enemies, of which bore some interest. He then bluntly told her she'd be joining this exhibit. She hauled to the taxidermists room, fighting like a wildcat the whole time, before being strapped down to the table. Left in the room with just the taxidermist, he casually talked her through how he was going to kill her, then prepare her body for display. Looking away from her and to his tools, he began to prepare. Using this opportunity, Ryuko squirmed free of her restraints and took up one of his meat cleavers. Gently padding on the tiled floor, by te time he realised she was free, she swung the blade at him, decapitating him in a single blow.

Sneaking out of the blood soaked taxidermy room, she crept through Urugram's menagerie, before coming upon his sleeping quarters. She cut him to ribbons while he slept, then crept outside, and escaped his compound.

Slave on the Run
Ryuko was now on the run. She was a single human slave in the Jiralhanae capital, and if she hoped to reach Themissiax's home, she'd need to cross the entire city on her home. Naked, and armed only with a meat cleaver, local law enforcement were quickly alerted to the runaway slave with murderous tendencies, and a bounty was placed on her head. Using her wits, cunning and occasionally a heft swing of her meat cleaver, she managed to cross the city in three days, keeping to back alleys and abandoned structures.

By the third day, she'd resorted to living off scraps, and as a temporary measure wrapped some discarded cloth around herself as a cloak to stave off the cold of the night time and cover herself. She'd also killed nearly half a dozen individuals who blocked her way, or came too close to discovering her. Her meat cleaver was beginning to dull and was coated in dried blood by the time she reached Themissiax's home.

Clambering up the west guard tower, she killed the sentry before he could raise the alarm. Taking his knife alongside her cleaver, she got to the gladiator compound and killed the two guards watched each side of it, and then a third guarding the armoury. Rousing the fifteen gladiators in the pens, including Sabine, she showed them to the armour, and as quietly as they could, they killed the numerous guards in the compound. Eventually, her and several others stormed Themissiax's room, killing his final bodyguard and capturing Themissiax. As the others held him down, Ryuko tortured him for information concerning the Demiurge. He resisted strongly at first, but as Ryuko increasingly threatened his manhood, his will began to break, and he told her what he knew. They were a secret society of influential individuals in the ex-Covenant races, intent on political manoeuvring so they can align the former Covenant races into a single political bloc, against humanity. Pressing for more information, such as numbers or bases, he only gave them the name of his Sangheili contact, Yora 'Vol, who stayed in a nearby hotel. Ryuko thanked him by swiftly killing him, then lead the other gladiators out. While Ryuko had vengeance on her mind, Sabine had freedom.

Gladiator Uprising
Sabine took charge of the situation, and lead them back into the city, to the outskirts of one of the biggest arenas in the city. There were hundreds, if not thousands of gladiators imprisoned in their pens, and if they could free them, they'd have an army at their back. Ryuko reluctantly agreed and they took the arena quickly and quietly, then released the multitudes of gladiators, who had already been whipped up into a frenzy by the recent anti-slaver attacks. At this point, the rebellion went from clandestine murder to full scale riot, as the gladiators went off in all directions, attacking Jiralhanae where ever they found them, setting fire to buildings and freeing more slaves.

Elsewhere, Dunn, Simon and Tal had stirred up trouble, launching clandestine strikes against infrastructure, assassinating influential individuals and generating internal strife, setting various Chieftains up against one another, inciting slaves to revolt, and freeing others. The result was a city consumed in chaos and havoc.

Meanwhile, Ryuko, Zoey and Sabine, along with a dozen others, went to where 'Vol was staying and ambushed him before he could escape. Before they started interrogating him, they discovered he had a ledger, containing vast amounts of internal information on the Demiurge. Ryuko only wanted the name of the people involved on the attack on Lak 'Vadam. 'Vol surrendered the names under duress, and Ryuko finally had her hit list. Now all they needed was freedom. They permanently silenced 'Vol and made their way to the starport. The thousands of free gladiators now banded together in storming the port, washing over the defenders. However, as quickly as they arrived, Jiralhanae forces came in an attempt to stop them escaping and retake the space port. They seized a few slipspace capable transports and began getting off the ground.

Meeting up with the crew of the Chancer V, they fought their way through the starport and closer to freedom. As they fought their way to the ships, Sabine took a spike to the thigh. Now barely able to walk, she just slowed her comrades as their pursuers gained on them. Sabine stood her ground, telling Ryuko to get the others out. Ryuko reluctantly gave in and hugged her one final time, tears in her eyes, then left. Sabine held her ground with a spiker, firing down the corridor, which is the last time Ryuko saw her.

Escaping slaves piled onto the transport, while the Chancer V crew, with Ryuko in tow, as well as a few other slaves, boarded the Chancer V. They took off and jumped to slipspace almost immediately, the in-atmosphere jump blinding pursuit vessels. Ryuko and a handful of others escaped Doisac, and slavery. After their blind jump into deep space, they made a straight shot for the frontier. Once out there, they dispersed, each gladiator getting off at different spots so he can find his family or make a new life.

Once the rest were off, Ryuko asked to be dropped off at a Sangheili outpost, gave her farewells and heartfelt gratitude to the Chanver V's crew, and then hitch-hiking from ship to ship until she reached Sanghelios. Handing herself in, she was initially taken into custody by Republic military officials, she wouldn't yield until she could talk to a Vadam elder. Eventually granted an audience with one, she told him her tale, and showed him the ledger. The Demiruge, who had attempted to manipulate the Republic, were now exposed, and their greatest ally, anonymity, was taken from them, leaving their various members and agents exposed.

Shortly after her exposure of the Demiurge, she received the news that the Gladiator Uprising on Doisac had been crushed. Ryuko's transport was one of the last to make it off the world, and the ships behind her were shot down by encroaching air forces. Mounting a desperate last stand around the starport, the Gladiators fought a pitched battle for hours before ammunition ran dry. Fighting in hand to hand, many were captured and others surrendered. Newscasts from Doisac indicated all those captured were executed publicly, most of them by being forced into a form fitting steel gibbet that prevented all movement, then hung at the side of roads, where they would slowly die from dehydration and exposure, and left to rot, though a few others were executed in more gruesome manners, such as being flayed alive, eaten by animals or cooked in a public place and feasted on. Ryuko knew that even if Sabine had survived the fight, she would of been among those publicly executed, and with a heavy heart, came to terms that her last friend was probably dead, like all of her previous friends in the pit.

Warrior of the Vadam
Ryuko was welcomed back to Vadam state as a hero. Numerous citizens lined the streets as this ragged little human girl was welcomed back into the keep she hadn't seen for six years. She was just happy to be home though.

Soon after her return, she was offered the position of housecarl, a serf position where they acted as the live in bodyguard of a member of the keep. She accepted this, and retrained under the warriors of the keep, becoming adept at the use of firearms and equipment such as point defence shields, explosives and some pieces of electronic gear. She still retained her sword she used as a gladiator, keeping it for more ceremonial uses, although it tasted blood a few times. The warriors of the Keep came to regard her as one of their own, and a lethal opponent not to be underestimated. Her skill would propagate through the state and attract attention. She was taken in as the housecarl of elder Hajal 'Vadam. She would serve him diligently for five months as his live in body guard, accompanying on trips across Sanghelios and beyond, though she loathed leaving the safety of the keep, fearing another attack by the Demiurge.

During her time as Housecarl, she defended her charge several times, a few times from attacks by assassins. She was also part of the force that defended Vadam Keep from an attack by terrorists associated with the Servants of Abiding Truth. During the battle, a force of around three hundred armed militants attacked the Keep, then defended by a hundred and fifty guards, including several housecarls, Keep Militia and several family members who took up arms. Ryuko was on the outer shield wall, defending the lower approach as the armed militants threw themselves against the wall, attempting to bring it down to approach the keep. Though she would not deny or confirm, several of her compatriots on the wall claimed she had a tally of sixteen foes brought down with her carbine from the battlements. When a small force managed to scale the cliffs, Ryuko was part of the responding force, engaging them in hand to hand fighting in the southern warrens. She would receive three commendations for bravery and skill after the battle.

Ultimately though, memories of her six years in captivity would weigh heavily on her, and the things that had happened to her were constantly on her mind. She discovered several of the names on her hit list had evaded authorities and were still on the run. Asking to end her contract, the 'Vadam Keep and the Republic compensated her significantly for services rendered, and using these funds, set herself up as a mercenary.

Demiurge Hunter
Purchasing a sizeable arsenal and a Asura-class Assault Shuttle, she set out searching for the Demiurge agents that had escaped justice. A few weeks into the hunt, she picked up the trail of the first name on her hit list, only to enter a tense stand-off with Illan 'Inerevar. Illan was a member of The Crusaders, a military order of knights who seeked to apprehend the most dangerous and violent criminals. He had been tracking members of the Demiurge, having already brought five to justice. As good as Ryuko was, Illan was a much better hunter than her, and she'd need his help. Backing down, she told him she was a citizen of the Vadam state, and that she hunted the Demiurge to bring them to justice, like she did. His superior tracking skills lead to a team up. She would act as an extra gun for him, and would be allowed to interrogate them before justice was dealt.



They caught the trail of Demiurge agent Faarl 'Damas, one of the squadron leaders from the attack on Lak 'Vadam. Approaching his encampment. Illan trusted his ally little, so she was initially placed on point, then proceeded to gun down then cut down seven of Faarl's mercenaries. Her trust cemented, Illan helped her fight through to 'Damas. Faarl attempted to commit suicide with his sidearm before they could reach him, but a pinpoint shot by Illan disarmed him, and they began to their impromptu interrogation. Illan learned Ryuko's motives when she demanded information on the slaves taken from the attack on Lak 'Vadam's diplomatic party. Faarl took part in the attack, but the one who orchestrated the attack was the one also responsible for selling the slaves on. Illan told him his sentence, which was death, then gave the honour to Ryuko. A single plasma bolt to the head was sufficient. She tossed his body aside, and asked Illan where their next target was.

Their team up would prove to be useful to both, as Illan's small party was in need of another warrior, and Ryuko desperately needed closure on those who destroyed her life. They proceeded to take out another four Demiurge agents, all of whom pointed them to the party leader before they were executed. Illan would eventually pick up his trail of the agent responsible for the attack, Tarramal 'Korv. They tracked him to his fort out in the neutral territories, and under the cover of night stormed it, killing his guards and eventually subduing him and taking him off world before the rest of his forces rallied to save him.

As always, Illan allowed her first crack at the prisoner, but told her they needed him alive for further questioning back on Sanghelios. Ryuko asked her what happened to her father when he was taken by his party. 'Korv's answer was short, blunt and brutal. They fed him to several predatory creatures they kept as pets. He was eaten alive by several beasts. Pushing Illan aside, she dragged 'Korv to the airlock, beating off Illan another time as he tried to stop her. 'Korv began to panic, shouting for the Crusader to stop her, but as she threw him into the airlock, those shouts turned to frantic pleading. She didn't care. She opened the airlock and blasted him out into space to die a slow and painful death in the void. Illan was furious and demanded she headed back to her own ship, docked alongside his. Disconnecting from his vessels, they went their separate ways. As she left, he sent her one final communique. If she resolved her issues, she should send him a message. He always looked for reliable mercenaries to bolster his own forces. Ryuko told him she'd think about it, then departed.

Mercenary Work


Ryuko was at last, truly free. She had no ties left, no master to obey, no orders to follow. She was free to find her own path. She became a freelance mercenary, heading from job to job and fight to fight. Out in the frontier territories, she was never short of work, and a skilled and experienced mercenary, who was fluent in English, Sangheili, Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar, was always able to find work. She spent substantial time on Fell Justice, always finding easy work as a mercenary, bodyguard, enforcer or spy.

The Artefact Job
Later that year, she was hired on as part of a ten man team by a artefact broker on Fell Justice. This ten man team, including mercenary captain Beatrix Jaeger and Tarn 'Koman, headed deep into Covenant territory to an abandoned Forerunner structure, adrift in an asteroid field. Evading the detection of the Covenant Archaeology teams on the structure, the team made their way on, but soon encountered Covenant patrols. An errant shot from the Mgelekgolo in the team detonated a disused plasma conduit, starting a catastrophic chain of events that destroyed the gravitic stabilization systems on the station, causing it to fall into the gravity well of the gas giant it orbited. Now on a limited time frame, with asteroids pelting the station, they fought their way through the Covenant to reach their goal. The artefact, some angular box of unknown purpose, was taken from its resting place and carried by the mercenary team. With Ryuko on point, they carved their way through the remaining Covenant as the station fell apart around them, then finally made it off and back to Fell Justice with their prize. For this they each received a small fortune, though the money wasn't of much interest to her.

Ghosts


During her time as a mercenary time she'd been haunted by recurring nightmares. She was pursued by a monster covered in shadow, chasing her through the arenas she'd fought in over the last few years. Eventually, this beast would catch her, and reveal itself, as a horribly malformed and twisted reflection of herself, with over grown, sharp teeth, a misshapen and contorted body, and sharpened claws, with a sickly complexion and blood leaving from every pore. Her monstrous mirror image would gain on her over time then catch her, mauling then eating her, while she still lived. At this point her nightmares ended. She Had many sleepless nights, haunted by this spectre, until she came to a conclusion. She needed closure over her escape from Doisac, and over Sabine, who she'd been forced to leave behind. By all rights, she was sure Sabine was dead, but she had to know for certain.

She tried to shake those feelings for months, but they wouldn't shift. Collecting bounties, fulfilling mercenary contracts and getting into brawls did little to shift these feelings, but she knew returning to Doisac was a virtual death sentence. Fortunately for Ryuko, opportunity fell into her lap.

Contracted by the Tyraxi
Returning to her temporary abode on Fell Justice after collecting a bounty, she found the electronic lock on her apartment had been tampered with. Drawing her pistol, she slowly crept through the door and found the intruder. A huge example of a brute, she trained his pistol on his head and told him to drop to his knees or she'll give him an extra asshole on his head. To her surprise, he did, then immediately told her he came here to offer her a job. After disarming the stranger, she allowed him back to his feet and interrogated him. His name was Caeus, and he was a captain in the Tyraxus Clan. He'd searched her out because he needed her help, then showed her the bag he brought in with her. There was a substantial payment of credits, and he told her she'd get half up front, half after the job was done. She didn't care about the pay, but she was curious if Caeus could help her in exchange for the job. Caeus agreed.

Securing her payment, she asked Caeus what exactly the job was. Caeus told her that he'd been on Fell Justice as part of a team, working on a task on behalf of his Chieftain when part of his pack was captured, and were being shipped off world soon. He didn't have enough guns to rescue them, and needed somebody that was skilled and fluent in Jiralhanae. A friend had recommended Ryuko. Caeus took Ryuko to join his remaining team members, where it was revealed to Ryuko that his pack contained brutes and slaves. Repulsed by this, she was about ready to quit when Caeus told her that the Tyraxi are not malicious slavers. They abuse the rules to protect vulnerable people, and free them after they've worked off their debt to them, but many choose to stay with them. Caeus then told her that among those captured includes slaves, and he intended to bring them all back. Initially cautious of his motives, she agreed to the job.

Initially Caeus' backup, she wasn't fond of the brutes, until they came under attack. Ambushed by the mercenaries they were tracking, one of the slaves, Jasper Larter, took a spike to the knee and was stuck in the open, under fire. Caeus ran out under a hail of fire and carried Jasper back, taking a score of injuries in the process. In that moment, her opinion of Caeus and his pack improved. The salve was one of their own and he risked his life for them. With Caeus now wounded, Ryuko took the lead, cleared out the marksmen pinning them down then lead them on, catching up with the mercenaries before they could load up their vessel and make it off world.

An intense firefight erupted in the hanger, with Ryuko cutting down a number of mercenaries herself. Clearing out the area, they secured the prisoners, and Caeus secured their original goal, a data crystal with vital information the mercenaries ferried for their paymaster. Retreating back to their base of operations, Caeus gave her the second half of her payment, and told her they were in her debt. If she ever needed work, a place to stay, or somewhere to resupply, she should drop him a line.

Return to Doisac
Caeus and Ryuko would part way, and she'd find a few more jobs on Fell Justice, but the dreams haunting her would come back again and again. She had to know for sure if her friend Sabine died during that uprising. Only a few weeks later, she got into communication with Caeus and asked to meet him. Rendezvousing in deep space, between her shuttle and his heavy corvette, she docked with his vessel and headed over to talk. She told him her past, how she got here, and about her friend. She needed to know what happened to her, but a human woman, alone on Doisac, was a target. Caeus agreed to help her in this, and they arranged a plan of action.

Caeus would use a false identity to get onto Doisac, as the Tyraxi tribe weren't exactly welcome there, and Ryuko would adopt the false identity of Mako, a gladiator from the frontier territories. Dying her hair blonde, she donned a new set of gladiator armour and wielded a short Jiralhanae-style sword. Heading to Doisac on a shuttle, shortly after making landfall Caeus brought her to one of his contacts. He'd been present during the gladiator uprising, and had some information to share on the fates of those who were captured. He had indeed seen a slave matching Sabine's description in the hands of the victorious law enforcement groups, and she'd been placed into a gibbet then hung close to the central plaza in the city. However, her body and gibbet disappeared after six days. He'd assumed it'd been stolen by a souvenir hunter or a fan wanting the body to display, or the bones to keep as relics. Crestfallen, Ryuko asked Caeus if they could visit where she'd been hung.

Travelling across the city, she laid down a native flower with bright white petals where she'd been hung. The gibbets of other gladiators, still filled with bones, hung around the plaza. As they left the site, Ryuko leaned to Caeus and got his attention. They were being tailed. She'd noticed them so time ago, but hadn't been sure until they approached closer. Caeus had noticed them too, but wasn't immediately familiar with them. Ryuko knew exactly who they were, the tattoos giving them away. They were agents of the Demiurge. Caeus was familiar with this group, since the Tyraxi had come under their predications more than once. Luring them down a side alley, they ambushed and killed the operatives tailing them, leaving only one survivor. Curious as to what he was after, the two demanded to know why he was following them, or indeed, which of them he was following. He revealed he was simply ordered to tail them, as they'd been asking questions regarding matters sensitive to the Demiurge. Ryuko demanded to know what Sabine had to do with the Demiurge. He wouldn't say anything more, resulting in Ryuko finishing him with a headshot.

Believing that she may very well be alive, but in the hands of the Demiurge, the two attempted to hunt down further members of the organisation, to try and track down Sabine's location. Discovering a Demiurge vessel that flew supplies off world, they stowed away. Taking them to the lawless moon of Teash. They'd established a base in the deserted wastelands of the moon, where they had plotted, schemed and conspired to their own ends. Once on the base, the two of them infiltrated deeper into the structure to learn more. They'd learned that the Demiurge had spent their years gaining strength in the court of the High Chieftains, and planned to other throw the two and replace them with a single puppet, which would be used to unit the Jiralhanae clans, who would begin to unite the former Covenant powers into one political bloc. Stealing the information from their central computer, they headed to their prison to search the cells. In the deepest, darkest section of the prison, in a isolation prison that consisted of a pit in the ground, Ryuko found her. Emaciated and catatonic, she found Sabine. Pulling her out of the hole, they carried her to the exit, where Caeus' crew met them. His corvette had pulled into an orbital position and fired upon the base, while a drpship had come down to the surface to get them out. Carrying Sabine to the ship, they lifted off, as the base erupted into flames around them. However, both knew it takes more than this to stop the Demiurge, and that assassination plot would still go ahead. Caeus' chieftain, Tyraxus, had the ear of High Chieftain Marius, but his brother Gauius was still in danger.

Heading back to Doisac on Ryuko's ship, The Blade Flash, they came down on the closest starport to the citadel the two ruled from. Guards loyal to Marius allowed Caeus, Ryuko and a few of Caeus' best warriors into the citadel. Marius had been ushered to safety by his most loyal guards, with one of Caeus' pack securing him, while the rest went to protect Gauius. He approached the Hill of kings inside the citadel, only to find that his guards and council were no where to be seen. Several members of his court approached him, drawing long knives, preparing to kill their unarmed chieftain. It was then that Caeus pack made it to the hill, springing upon the attacks. In the conflict, one attack cleared the brawl and ran straight for Gauius, knife in hand, before he was intercepted by Ryuko and impaled through the pack, killing him outright.

As the smoke cleared, the guards loyal to Gauius purged the citadel of any who partook or aided in the battle, then turned to their saviours. When offered riches and rewards, Caeus and his pack only asked for their good favour, and a response to the Demiurge. Gauius decreed they would by hunted and slain, painfully and slowly. Gauius' attention turned to the slave that saved his life and offered Ryuko her a position as the Chieftain's aid, a life of comfort. She declined, telling him she was a warrior, loyal to her master. He didn't need to know she was actually a fugitive slave who had escaped to freedom. With Gauius' favour, they left.

Time Off Work
Bidding farewell to her Tyraxi allies, she departed back to Fell Justice with her friend. Sabine had not fared well in captivity, and in her few lucid moments, she would tell her what and why she had endured. Knowing she was linked to the murder of the Demiurge agent, Themissiax, she was taken into their custody and interrogated daily. Tortured near continuously for months, when she would not divulge any information, and was left in the isolation cell and they simply forgot about her. Getting back to Fell Justice, she checked her friend into a private clinic for some much needed immediate treatment. Sabine would remain in hospital for a month while Ryuko performed small jobs, visiting her when possible. Eventually, she was cleared to be well enough to be released.

Bringing her to live with her while she recovered her strength, Ryuko would usually go out to perform bounty contracts during the day and help her friend recover during the night, but Sabine's recover would take time. Malnourished, and still suffering from the wounds inflicted in torture, she could barely walk and spent much of her time catatonic. Ryuko, agitated by the lack of recovery, punched her in the face, snapping Sabine out of her stupor. Berating her on being weak and her will breaking, Sabine broke her from her fugue and took in her surroundings. She was free, for the first time in a very long time. With Ryuko's help, she would begin recovery, gaining her strength back, becoming well enough to walk soon and coping for herself. Within a few months, she'd recovered to a point where she was mostly self-sufficient and was approaching her condition of physical fitness she held as a Gladiator.

Eventually, Ryuko offered her to join her as a freelancer. They'd make one hell of a team, with Ryuko as the muscle and Sabine watching her back. Taking a short while to mull it over, she decided to go into business with Ryuko. Ryuko knew she was a smart and strong gladiator, but she taught her the finer points of fighting with a gun, and working as a mercenary. Sabine took to it fast, and learned quick. Of course, other parts of her reintegration into society were more difficult. Having lived a slave to the Jiralhanae since the age of seven, she'd grown up living under another set of rules and laws, and the culture of her birth was almost alien to her. The biggest issue was simply trying to get her to wear regular clothing again, as she'd spent most of her life in what amounted to slave clothing for Jiralhanae, or less, and kept many of the mannerisms of a slave, like proper responses and attitude. It would take time to break these habits, many of which left Ryuko embarrassed, whether it was Sabine walking around her ship or her apartment naked, or the neighbours thinking Sabine was a slave (Not exactly a uncommon sight on Fell Justice).

Partners In Crime
The team up of Ryuko and Sabine would be extremely deadly. Taking work as mercenaries, they would go from job to job. Ryuko would prove well as the muscle of their operation, and Sabine as the brains. Despite living most her life a slave she was intelligent, driven and charismatic, in her own way. Taking on mercenary work, bounties and other work on Fell Justice and beyond and they made a name for themselves.

They even began to accumulate a number of contacts and found jobs further and further afield. They then got a job that seemed too good to be true. A pirate clan was transporting a sizeable amount of wealth, made up of cash, jewels and relics. On their last job, they crashed a pirate ship into the spacedock orbiting Fell Justice, causing horrendous amounts of damage, and giving them big debts to pay. Their job came from a rival pirate clan, offering them a portion of the loot if they pulled off this job. Sabine advised against taking the job, but Ryuko refused to be in debt. They immediately headed out.

The trade over of the loot would occur on a distant moon in the neutral territories, which would be their only opportunity to steal the goods. Approaching quietly in the Blade Flash, avoiding the sensors of their ships, they set down a short distance from the trade over. Approaching the clearing, they got as close as they could before they opened fire, slaughtering the guards with ease. Taking the prize, Ryuko remotely called the Blade Flash to come to the clearing on autopilot and pick them up. As the ship landed, they went to loading it up as quickly as possible. That's when Sabine noticed it. The cash was made up of bonds, given by the Kig-Yar central government. They'd just attacked the Kig-Yar union while they were paying one of their privateers. This money wasn't enough worth it any more, as it was so hot nobody would accept it as payment. However, their only chance of payment came from taking the loot. Loading up, breaking orbit then jumping to slipspace as quickly as possible, they immediately headed to their rendezvous without delay. Meeting on an abandoned mining station, they found their client mysteriously absent. They'd been set up. Perhaps somebody wanted the Union to suffer and left them as the scape goats, or perhaps somebody was gunning for them directly, either way, they were in trouble. Dumping the hot cargo, they returned to Fell Justice.

Paranoid that they'd been tracked, Sabine barely slept for days, remaining on vigil over their modest apartment, while Ryuko went on like nothing was wrong. Four days after their botched heist, the trackers sent after them found them. Setting up snipers opposite their apartment, then an entry team near the front door, they began their assault by throwing a high explosive charge into the apartment, destroying their living room and blowing their eardrums. Rolling out of bed in her pyjamas and side arm at hand, she took out the first two members of the breaching team before the snipers pinned her down. Sabine came out with a plasma rifle in hand and knocked down three more. Knowing they were sitting ducks, the two of them moved from cover to cover, firing short bursts before diving out of their rear window, down to the entrance to the hangar. Ryuko started up her ship, while Sabine held them off. As soon as the engines were on, Sabine climbed aboard, and they blasted through the hangar doors and headed straight up, towards the Union ships blockading the system. Engaging in a close fire fight with a squadron of Seraphs, they barely came out on top and eventually jumped to slipspace, outpacing the pursuing warships.

The two had a substantial bounty on their heads, and every bounty hunter in the frontier was gunning for them. They needed to lie low, and had few places to turn to. It was too much of a distance to get to Sanghelios, and they had to go through space lanes controlled by the Union's allies, and the human territories were too distant too. After three close calls, coming close to being caught by bounty hunters as the transitioned from system to system, or making stops for resupply and refuel. She had one choice, to visit the Tyraxi. Making it to Jiralhanae territories, most of the bounty hunters dropped off the chase, and for those few that still stuck to their tail, they made three blind jumps to randomised coordinates, then made a straight line to Tirex's Rest.

Making it to orbit of the world, Caeus welcomed his friend back with open arms. Ryuko told him their situation and asked if they could hide out. Caeus told them he could easily disguise them as Tyraxi slaves. While Ryuko wasn't over joyed with the idea, she went with it. After all, both her and Sabine and the experience to hid as convincing slaves. In order to cement their disguise, Ryuko dyed her hair blonde again, while Sabine cut her long hair short.

Physical Appearance
Between growing up on Sanghelios, and living as a gladiator, she's extraordinarily fit. Possessed of a small, but lithe body, with well developed musculature and almost no cutaneous fat. She's got more than a few scars, but most have healed well thanks to advanced Covenant biotech, leaving a few notable scars here and there, as well as a few nicks here and there. Due to the fact she spends the majority of her time outside, her skin has become tanned.

Ryuko is of far eastern descent, mostly of Japanese stock, though she also has European ancestors on her mothers side, accounting for her blue eyes. She has dark blue hair, which in recent years has been forcibly dyed on Calistus' orders for aesthetic effects, so it now has red running through it. She has deep blue eyes, the same as her mother.



Personality
Ryuko can quickly be summed up as loud, brash, stubborn and always spoiling for a fight. Even as a child she was energetic and boisterous, and growing up on Sanghelios cemented that attitude. As a child she always scrapped with the bigger Sanghelios youths, and growing up amongst them she took on many of their social conventions, such as personal honour. As a grown woman she's maintained thrives of personal honour, and this usually manifests as being a very sore loser. She's also prone to running her mouth, and will say exactly what what's a on her mind. She's also know to lash out physically when she's angry, or finds difficulty expressing herself. Despite being a slave for several years, she has still yet to get used to the clothing (or lack of clothing) given to slaves and gets easily embarrassed by her slave clothing, especially around other humans.



Losing her family crushed her, but her spirit refused to yield. Despite attempts by numerous owners to break her, she's refused to yield and still remains fiercely independent and determined to resist. She abhors slavers, and slave owners with a passion, but in the arena, she has a sense of belonging. In the arena, she loves a good brawl, and battles with an extreme vigour that few enemies can keep up with. She does what she can to protect other slaves around her, especially those who can't protect themselves. Despite this, she's not a team player, and prefers to fight alone, not playing well with others. In a few rare instances, her better nature shines through, when she can be kind and gentle, and even laugh and joke, both these instances are few and far between, since she trusts few people enough to open up around them.

Skills
Ryuko has trained extensively to attain her current skill level. Her main skill is that of a Gladiator, being both a skilled duellist and a excellent swordsman, as well as a excellent showman. Her skill is such, few opponents have ever landed a blow on her, fewer still have beaten her. She's also developed her niche in showmanship, working in the crowd by berating them and the other fighter, and running her mouth as long as she needs to. As a swordsman, there's few that can contend, and her speed and strength of arm allow her to easily beat most foes. Her fighting style is mostly a mixture of gladiator training, Sangheili swordsmanship and her own ideas, resulting in a fast and brutal style, relying on heavy blows launched with such speed and ferocity that there's little defence.

Ryuko herself is very athletic, being fast, strong and flexible. Her difficult training regime means she's stronger than most men her age and can easily out run them.

She has a number of other skills, such as rudimentary first aid for patching herself and has limited training in firearms from Trak, but rarely gets the opportunity to test this skill.

After her escape, and return to the state of Vadam, she was tutored in combat by the keeps warriors to become a housecarl, and protector in service to a high member of the keep. Here, she learned the finer points of handling fire arms, becoming proficient, then just plain deadly with them in a quick period of time, as well as being tutored on protective measures to cover her VIP. These skills would be regularly tested protecting her VIP and the Keep from threats.



When she went freelance, these skills were sharpened by the constant stream of jobs. To add to this, her self-reliance forced her to become familiar with maintaining her ship, weapons, armour and other pieces of tech. Her partnership with the Crusader, 'Nerevar, also introduced her to methods of tracking quarry and interrogation, tuning her senses to make her a great bounty hunter.

Gladiator School
At the gladiator school run by Dacastus, she was given her first gladiator armour and weapon. Given a standard gladiator harness designed for human males, it was initially ill fitting and uncomfortable. Upon this harness her armour would be directly bolted onto the harness. After the first month, Dacastus had a custom made harness made especially for her. This harness, like the others used by the gladiators, was a set of metallic components connected by leather straps, which were locked onto her body by the overseer, and could only be unlocked by his key. The harness did little to spare her modesty, featuring a simplistic design that featured a collar, two straps on her upper arm, a strap across her chest, a codpiece and two straps on her thighs, all of which were interconnected. Her training armour was piled onto this harness, which consisted of a modest chest plate contoured to her body, two fauld plates that covered each of her thighs, greaves, and vambraces. For most of training she had a longsword made for training, with a dulled point, but later in her training, she was equipped with a sharpened version, making for genuine combat.

Under Taramanus
Taramanus only owned Ryuko for a short time, and during that time he bought her a single set of armour, a style intended for human males, again. This ill fitting armour hampered her agility, especially given it was designed for somebody with a larger frame. This consisted of greaves, vambraces, two rounded pauldrons, a breast plate that hung heavily on her torso and a single fauld hanging from her hips, suspended by a belt. She utilised a Jiralhanae style sword, with a wicked curve a the tip.

Under Trak F'Kor
When Trak F'Kor bought her, her arms and armour came bundled under the price, Shortly after her first few matches, Trak bought her a custom made set of armour. Form fitting, practical and modest, the armour featured a cuirasse, greaves, faulds, vambraces and pauldrons, along with a high collar to protect her neck, and was fitted with an underlying body suit. This was teamed with a well balanced sword, with a basket style hilt. Unfortunately, this gear would be discarded when the cartel took owner ship of her.

Under Kar'tra
under the Cartel associate Kar'tra, she was taken back to being dressed and armoured as an out right slave. Her newly made battle armour featured a cuirasse, vambraces graves and a 'skirt' made from multiple faulds overlapping one another. She utilised a Kig-Yar pattern of longsword, featuring a gut hook for cracking open armour.

During the Tarmaessenia games reenactment, she wore mock armour in the guise of historical Kig-Yar armour patterns, intended to replicate the armour of the Free Traders of Tammak. This armour, which Ryuko particularly hated, consisted of a bikini-style armour, especially made for the jeering crowd's pleasure, teamed with a short red cloak, a short sowrd and a shield. The shield was dumped soon into the battle, being thrown in the face of one of her opponents.

During her run as the 'Princess of the Sands' she wore a set of armour especially tailored to her by one of Eayn's top armoursmiths. The armour featured a segmented breast plate, extended form the armour collar at the top, to the tip of the plate at her abdomen, a similar segmented fauld hanging from her hips, with vambraces, greaves, pauldrons and something clothing to protect her modesty. All of this was gilded with silver decoration, and accented by deep blue clothes, with two hanging from her hips, and one over her right shoulder. To finish the appearance of royalty, she had a matching tiara, decorated with silver. Her weapon with be a single edged longside, polished to a fine sheen.

Under Princess Faz'Xazal
In service of Princess Faz'Xazal, her armour changed significantly, mirroring the exoskeleton of the hive members. The armour consisted of a moulded cuirassed, barbed braces and greaves, a codpiece and moulded tassets on each side of her thigh. These plates were a deep green colour and was made of the same material used in the exterior of hives and on their warships, a hardened ceramic. Her weapon was a curved sword, with various hooks and knicks designed to pry off of catch the armour of the enemy.

Under Char Murv
Under Char Murv, her armour and arms was of a poor quality. Her armour consisted of a modified cuirasse and greaves from a set of Kig-Yar armour that proved to be extremely uncomfortable to wear. In an attempt to market her, Char Murv had a set of armour commissioned to expose her feminine curves in alluring ways, which Ryuko particularly hated, given the amount of skin it showed. Her sword was a Kig-Yar design, designed for strong decapitation blows, and it claimed many limbs and heads during the defence of Char Murv's ship.



Under Calistus
Calistus knew the power of marketing, and knew the crowd loved to hate a villain, so he promoted her as a sangheili trained war-witch and armoured her in armour designed in mockery of Sangheili battle dress. Like most Jiralhanae slaves, she's fitted with an under harness. This is locked onto her body by a key only Calistus possesses, and functions as the means to mount her armour on. The harness consists of red leather straps, criss crossing her body and with mounting points to hold armour or chains. The harness covers at least some of her modesty, with a codpiece and two vertical straps covering her chest. Onto this they mounted her armour, featuring an encompassing cuirasse, covering her front and back, from her neck to her navel and fitted with shoulder guards, that curved upwards, intended to give her a more fearsome appearance. Onto her waist, her harness is mounted with twin tassets, covering the right and left side of her hips, and the front of her tights. These are made from overlapping plates of armour, giving them some degree of flexibility. To round out the gear, she has boots, greaves and vambraces, fitted with spring loaded blades to defend herself in the event she is disarmed. Under her armour she wore Sangheili-style coverings, on her arms, running from her thumb to mid-way up her upper arm, and matching ones running from her ankles to just above her knee, and a similar piece below her curiasse, covering her neck. Her weapon as an elegant, single-edged longsword, finished in a red coating and ending in a circular hilt, allowing her use it as a knuckle duster and allowing her to perform flourishes with it.



Under Themissiax
Themissiax, much like Calistus, knew the advantages of marketing, and kept much of her armour similar, within a degree. Her newly commissioned set was designed to match that of the slightly better known Sabine, albeit in the red and black colours that had become her trademark. The under pinning harness was the same, but instead featured smaller faulds slightly further down on her thighs, rather than her hips, instead of the canted shoulder guards, she instead had two large conical shaped guards, and a different breastplate. She used the same sword as she did with Calistus.

In the Menagerie
In the menagerie, she was initially placed on display without clothing or armour, much to her embarrassment. When she was taken to be killed and stuffed, he'd arranged to have a copy of her famous armour and sword used as she was in service to Calistus. Her escape and murder of Urugram put a stop to this.

During the Uprising
During the uprising, she was initially forced to use a meat cleaver stolen from Urugram's taxidermist and cover herself in rags. Upon reaching Themissiax's manor, she retrieved her armour and sword, as well as a spike rifle, which she would use until the end of the uprising. She wore a few extra rags over to the top of her armour, and wore them until her escape.

As a Housecarl
While a housecarl in service to Hajal 'Vadam, she wore a modified variant of the Scout Harness used by the Tan'Rith legion. Lightweight but still sturdy, it allows a full range of movement to Ryuko. It consists of a curiasse, with a breast plate and back plate, connected by adjoining shoulder plates, vambraces, greaves with connected kneepads, boots, cuisses to cover her thighs, and a cod piece. This armour was fitted with electronic systems including IFF, tracking, communication, damage response and networking. This armour was painted in the colours of the Vadam lineage, with a deep crimson on hue with white decaling. Under thus she wore a Sangheili battledress, consisting of a leotard, arm covers, and leg covers, made of a light weight polymer fabric that conferred a slight protection against shrapnel and glancing blows.

She kept her sword from her time as a Gladiator, but usually teamed with a plasma rifle, or a carbine, as well as a plasma pistol as a back up at all times.

As a Mercenary


As a mercenary, she kept a Scout Harness, this time painted matte black, with red decaling. Normally, she'd wear on the cuirasse, over normal civilian clothing, usually a vest, combat trousers and boots, the a leather jacket over her cuirasse, but occasionally for specialised missions she'd wear the whole set, usually with a unitard and arm covers on underneath, weather permitting.

For her armament, she kept a large arsenal on board her ship. The usual weapon load out consisted of a her sword, a rifle and her side arm, a plasma pistol usually kept at a 3 o'clock holster position on the back of her hips. Her arsenal included plasma rifles, a plasma repeater, a storm rifle and a carbine, along with batteries and ammunition for all of them. As well as this, it included plasma grenades and several explosive devices, though nothing possessing an especially large yield. Her vambraces were modified to have spring loaded blades fitted in them, that could deploy in a fraction of a second, as a nasty surprise for anybody that thought her to be unarmed. She also used a 'night night' glove, from time to time. A knock off of a UNSC non-lethal weapon, the glove is insulted and fitted with a high power capacitor. It is designed to discharge on impact with a target, such as grabbing them, or punching them, and deliver a high voltage shock, enough to knock them out. It can be modified to take on targets large or smaller than humans.



Her personal means of transport was the Asura-class Assault Shuttle customised to her needs. The ship, which she came to call the Blade Flash, was originally a military spec Asura-class, fitted with most of the common systems, as well as a pair of fuel rod cannons in the weapons bay. The ship has been painted black, with red chevrons on the side. Internally, there's little in terms of modifications, though the three modular rooms have been fitted with unusual selections. The largest is a sparring room, for exercising and training, which has been fitted with a holographic projector to create training scenarios and opponents. The next largest is the lounge, a place to relax. Fitted with a few comforts, Ryuko tends to sleep in here rather the cabin. Lastly is her improvised brig, used for bringing in bounties. With improved locking mechanisms to prevent entry or exit without her knowledge, it is fitted with five stasis fields used to restrain prisoners.

In the cargo bay of the Blade Flash is her method of locomotion on the ground. She uses a stripped down Iruiru Armory C-7Z Gale, a type of hoverbike made for the civilian market on Sanghelios. Quick, sturdy and able to turn on a dime, it can take her and a passenger, as well as some extra cargo, and provide travel back and forth from the ship.