Ren Arnassis

Ren Arnassis has variously served as Lunite Resistance guerrilla, LCAF general, Lunite senator, Sivadian Marine, private investigator, and security officer. He is presently the captain of the IND Hard Eight and a small crew of roaming bounty hunters and mercenaries.

Blunt to a fault, violent by nature, smarter than he looks (but not that much smarter), learned after many often painful mistakes, cranky out of habit, ferociously dogged when he's after something he wants, the Lunite is equal parts old soldier, wise warrior, crotchety middle-aged alcoholic and deadly thug.

He maintains an openly intense -- and occasionally violent -- distaste for a rival bounty hunter, Rillitan Ryoleli, master of the IND Old Daisy.

Early career
Arnassis grew up in one of Luna's domed industrial cities, the only son of a laborer in a fabrication plant and a homemaker. This was, which was invaded by Colin Neidermeyer's forces when Arnassis was still very young. He grew up under the yoke of Guardian Fleet power.

He was recruited by a cell of the Resistance on Luna sometime during his seconday school education; records of membership and activities of such cells are notoriously hard to obtain, but Arnassis' account of his time in the Resistance, when he's willing to offer it, is that he was asked first to obtain a cover job as a janitor in a government installation to pass information and sabotage. Not long after, he says, his duties shifted and he became a guerrilla fighter performing hit-and-run missions and assassinations.

The Moebius Effect shook Luna to the core. Arnassis, then a survivor of the Resistance movement, broke from the ranks to call for Lunites to take arms openly in their own self-defense. He formed a militia group called the Janitors, named after the type of cover job he and his colleagues often took. When he joined Clifford Trumble's Free Luna Protectorate effort, he brought the Janitors with them, forming them into the LCAF. A Resistance fighter with no real experience commanding such a large group of people, Arnassis managed to guide together a cohesive and at least semi-professional militia of several thousand soldiers. Also a Lunite senator at this time, his political agenda was one of economic independence and revitalization for Luna. He often clashed with fellow Senator Jeff Ryan, and the power struggle between Ryan, Arnassis, and eventually with Lunite Ministry of Intelligence director Skylar Forseti created political strife that often deadlocked the Senate.

Later years
The Protectorate experiment ended when the Moebius Effect was reversed and Arnassis' Luna returned to its home. Arnassis often boasts that he orchestrated the creation of a network of resistance pockets, booby traps and defensive positions throughout the planet that would safeguard it against invasion from the Mars waiting beyond the effect's event horizon, but there's no way of ever knowing if he was successful.

When the OATO and the Guardian Fleet erupted into war, Arnassis joined the Sivadian Royal Naval Service for the express purpose of fighting the Guardian Fleet. He took the King's Commission as a Lieutenant of Marines and served aboard the HMS Indefatigable for several engagements, including the ground fighting on Titan. After the war, he served with distinction on Tomin Kora - earning the King's Medal for Gallantry - and retired shortly after. The rumor was he'd retired to be with Raisa Amondella.

Subsequently, Arnassis began a career as a private investigator; most notably, he was involved in the investigation into the disappearance of Timonae senator Zia Crue. He also had a hand in several less conspicuous cases. After a job gone sour in 3005, Arnassis went through a period of unemployment; it ended when he took a position with Jack Wiendrbac and the VRM Artemis as security staff.

Arnassis broke with AES in 3006 and purchased a ship, the IND Hard Eight. He now roams the galaxy, looking for jobs that require his particular mix of brute force, unnecessary violence, and -- occasionally -- ruthless cunning, and a crew to take them with.

Kedren Arnassis
Ren Arnassis was predated in the "normal" universe. Kedren Arnassis, his independent-Luna counterpart, grew up under much the same conditions as Ren except he ran away from home at a young age, escaping a family situation more turbulent than Ren's. After a fairly stable childhood in a foster home, Kedren dropped out of community college studies in law enforcement to become a marine in the LMMC until his suicide in 3002. While in the LMMC, he never served in combat. At that time, Kedren had two claims to fame: he won an Olympic Medal for Marksmanship in 3001 ... and shortly before his suicide, he assassinated Free Luna Protectorate President Jeffrey Kalson and led a raid to destroy the installation Kalson was using to build his Specialist army of personal guards, killing the Specialists within in the process. The scope of the carnage was such that he was tried posthumously for genocide.