ace-6  black  knights

commander

HARPER “SAO” MCCORD was born in 2905 in The Blocks of Prime, Terra to a family struggling to find their place after his parents and grandparents fled the system during the Fall of Caliban in 2884. Finding integration into Terran society difficult, the Caliban refugees were ostracized to ‘The Blocks’ district where young Harper learned the ways of the street. Having no siblings he kept his own company and preferred to stay in the shadows. A creative person with a mind for ingenuity, he tinkered with any tech he could get his hands on, improving on technical designs to use various devices for his own nefarious purposes. He used his natural talents to steal and cause mischief with the local shops and vendors in Prime. Thus began a life of crime that would climax in his arrest and incarceration in the maximum security prison, Quarterdeck, in 2929 for possession and transportation of stolen property, forgery, aiding, abetting and conspiracy convictions from his underworld dealings. His actions were implicated in the deaths of several UEE citizens, including the god-daughter of Terran Senator Kelos Albervar, whose death launched the Advocacy investigation that eventually caught McCord.

A large man, McCord thrived in the anti-matter processing facility on Quarterdeck. His hard work paid off in 2933 when he was offered a reduced sentence for an enlistment in the UEE Navy as a Starman. There he worked the anti-matter refueling docks on Everus Harbor and Lorville, Hurston (Stanton 1), refueling UEE ships that made port there. Quickly realizing that his chances of promotion were slim, he used his skills of psychological manipulation that helped him survive The Blocks and Quarterdeck to gain the trust of the pilots that frequented Everus Harbor and Lorville. Still a loner and suspicious of everyone he met, he passed the time by learning everything he could about the spacecraft he was refueling, specifically how they functioned. Having a Scotch-Irish tolerance, he was notorious for spending half his credits at the bar, buying rounds for the pilots he would use to increase his knowledge of ships and components from across the galaxy. His insatiable desire to tinker taught him how to maximize component performance and, more importantly, how to undermine them.

During his 6-year UEE Navy obligation at Everus Harbor, McCord used his spare time and the goodwill he earned from pilots to learn how to fly most of the single and multi-crew ships that the UEE has in its inventory. He called his training flights “booze cruises” and would win bets with the pilots for flight time by challenging them to drink with him a concoction of alcohol and other unknown substances from his size 13 boot; a boot he worked in daily in the fuel farm. The first one to drain it would win a free flight for him or a 1250 Credit bottle of Radegast Whiskey for the pilot. He still has that bottle.

After his discharge from the UEEN in 2939, he acquired a used, non-operational Drake Herald and began a life as a lawful Inforunner. His knowledge of the Herald and Inforunning was extensive, as his criminal days were spent crewing for one low-life inforunner after another. Determined not to return to his old life, he leveraged the contacts he had made over the years and was able to maintain stable work throughout the Stanton system enjoying his life of staying in the shadows where he was most at home. He was gifted a Vanguard Sentinel from a retired UEE Admiral who McCord had helped years earlier by assisting the Admiral in expunging a potentially scandalous bit of information. McCord went on to become an expert on the Sentinel and its Electronic Warfare suite, and eventually started “Black Knight Security”, specializing in crypto and data network hardening from EMP and EW threats. He was able to secure lucrative contracts with Hurston and Crusader Security leading to a moderately successful business.

Aurora Republic

In 2938, he met Capt John “SKID” Boyd at the bar on Everus Harbor. McCord retells that Boyd was happy to tell anyone who would listen about his now-famous E-M Theory. Adding to Boyd's already copious level of intoxication, McCord took great interest in Boyd’s theory and they became friends out of a mutual desire of creating “better ways of killing Vanduul”. A lifelong xenophobe, McCord harbors a visceral hatred for the Vanduul, stemming from the hardships his family suffered from their flight from Caliban. In 2947, Boyd contacted McCord and introduced him to the Aurora Republic, observing that his unique skill set and colorful past would be of benefit to the nationalistic endeavor. The fit was natural and Black Knight Security became ACE-6, The Black Knights.