Helmar Valasek

Captain Helmar Valasek (2979 – ????), founder and only ruler of the bandit kingdom Santander's World, was one of the most notorious and successful Periphery pirates of the first half of the 31st century.

Early life

Similar to the grandfather of his contemporary Hendrik Grimm III, Helmar Valasek initially embarked on a promising military career in the Inner Sphere. Born 2979 into an ordinary family on Parma in the Federated Suns, he worked his way up to graduate with honors from Kilbourne Academy. Within a few years of joining the AFFS he had become one of its youngest captains in history. However, Valasek's quarrelsome personality led to ever-increasing arguments with his superiors, ultimately resulting in him turning rogue.

Building a pirate world

Valasek defected from the Davion military in 3003 along with a handful of like-minded soldiers and a commandeered drop ship. For the next sixteen years his pirate band led a nomadic life, constantly moving between Davion, Kurita and Outworlds Alliance space. His many narrow escapes from the authorities only increased his notoriety and following. With the pirate life increasingly taxing his health, in 3019 he finally settled down on the remote planet Santander V in the coreward Periphery, beyond the borders of the Draconis Combine. Requiring all new recruits to swear a blood oath of loyalty and encouraging his pirates to kill anyone suspected of betraying it, Valasek ruled his world with an iron fist and utter amorality. Not content with raiding and plundering, his battalion became infamous as Santander's Killers due to their specialising in covert assassinations and terrorism on Kuritan and Davion worlds. Most of his treasury was sustained by hiring out his pirates to various dissident groups, supplemented by the ransoming of hijacked civilians. Valasek was known to use part of his income to operate an extensive web of informants to warn him of impending retaliatory strikes.

Appearance and manner

With a lack of restraint and discipline marking many aspects of his life, by his mid-40s Valasek reportedly already weighed over 300 pounds. Bald and goateed, his nihilist attitude was highlighted by cruelty and avarice. He also showed signs of being manic-depressive, his mood wavering between gleeful enjoyment of torture and murder, moments of manic activity and stretches of bored apathy.

Downfall

For all the trouble he caused, Valasek surprisingly ruled Santander's World for 30 years, careful to never become more than a serious irritant to his Inner Sphere neighbors who were more occupied with waging war on each other. The invading clans, however, were neither distracted nor merciful. In August of 3049, forces of clan Smoke Jaguar landed on the planet in one of the first combat actions of the entire invasion. Valasek ambushed and destroyed the initial landing force, enraging the invaders. Using every trick at their disposal, his mech company held out over a week against an entire assault cluster led by saKhan Sarah Weaver herself. At the pirates' last stand, Weaver's Timber Wolf destroyed Valasek's BattleMaster but discovered that the old captain had not actually been piloting it. Helmar Valasek was never found, but with his world conquered and him having no known heirs, his once-feared name faded into obscurity.

References

• The Periphery, p. 153
• Invading Clans, p. 53-54