Paula Trevaline

Paula Trevaline
Personal
Also known as	Lady Death
Born	2991
Died	3075
Affiliation	Tortuga Dominions
Profile
Profession	Pirate
Family
Parents	Katina (mother)
Children	Carol Trevaline (rumored)

Paula Trevaline, who was better known as Lady Death, whose arrogant and cruel ways were well known. She was known for the bravado that allowed her climb the ranks of pirate clan. Her principal goal was to accumulate as much wealth and power as possible at the expense of others. She delighted in humiliating her captives before executing them.

In her prime in 3025, she was tall and muscular, with waist-length red hair and gray eyes. She was known to coat her long fingernails with poison nail polish.

History

Early Life and Rise to Power

Trevaline was born on the Periphery world of Tortuga Prime, the child of a reluctant pirate Gunnery Master and a pharmacist he dragged to Tortuga and subsequently abandoned. In 3000 Paula's mother, Katina, was raped and murdered by Jack "Blackjack" Magee, a MechWarrior obsessed with her. Nine years old at the time, Paula witnessed the crime from the closet she was hiding in. At age eleven, she had killed her first rival, implied to be someone who had abused her.

By the age of seventeen Paula had been running the Dark Horse Pub in Outback on Tortuga for some time; the deed to the Dark Horse had been left to her by her father, who had nicknamed her "Peanut" - a nickname that had stuck, despite her objections. Well known as someone who shouldn't be crossed, Paula had no need of bouncers or other staff at the Dark Horse, and operated the pub until the 8th of September 3008 - the night Jack Magee walked in. Jack didn't recognize her, but flirted with her over the course of the evening while regaling everyone else in the pub with tales of his exploits. After the other patrons left, Paula poisoned Magee with Tortugan scorpion venom and revealed her true identity. Blackmailing Magee into revealing the activation code for his 'Mech, Paula shot him in the head and took control of his 'Mech, a Banshee he had named Lady Red after Katina. Based on her life to date, Paula decided at that point that Lady Death was a much better name for her and her new 'Mech. She would subsequently proceed on the path to becoming a pirate, climbing up its ranks.

In 3015, she became Senior Mate on the Tortuga City's Council of the Damned. During this year she had a fencing match with then-reigning monarch of the Pirates and the Dominion, Lord Kalvin Bar-Dyness. In this match, her skills allowed her to achieve one of her life goals, becoming supreme leader of the Pirates of Tortuga Dominion. She gave herself the title of Dame Murderess Extraordinaire. After she became the leader of the Council, she had eight loyalists killed and their heads put on spikes in front of the building. She also ended the wasteful infighting between various pirate groups and consolidated them into a single force. Independent raids were prohibited on pain of death. This allowed her to use her forces more effectively.

Early Piracy Career and Imprisonment

During the first stretch of her career as Pirate Queen of the Tortuga Dominion, Trevaline employed her pirates in the Federated Suns and near-by Periphery nation states. She continued to maintain her power with what has been described as armies of cutthroat assassins. However, she had been known to take down opponents to her rule with her poisoned nails.

After 3017 she allowed independent pirate bands to use the world as a base as long as they followed three rules:

1. Pay her a quarter of their loot
2. Never work against her
3. Don't abuse her citizens

If any of these rules were broken, the forces of all pirates on world would kill the rule breakers.

However, in 3042, the Ninth FedCom RCT was dispatched to the Periphery by First Prince Hanse Davion to hunt down Trevaline. The conflict cost Davion over nine hundred infantry, a battalion of armor vehicles, a wing of aerospace fighters (including two DropShips), and two companies of BattleMechs. However, in the end, they succeeded in capturing Lady Death and bringing her to justice on New Syrtis. There she was sent to a maximum-security prison for twenty-two years, until she managed to escape her captors in 3064 during the FedCom Civil War.

Later Piracy Career

Formation of Death's Consorts and the Pirates Haven Star Cluster

Once free of her imprisonment on New Syrtis, Trevaline returned to her old career of piracy. She had learned bitter lessons from her fall from power in the Tortuga Dominion. She headed to Verdigreis, where she sent out a call for new recruits to join her. From thousands of pirates who answered the call, she selected only the elite of these warriors to form her new pirate band, the Death's Consorts. She had other potential recruits go to the Pirates Haven star cluster to meet her there. She quickly commenced the first pirate raids with the Consorts against Althea's Choice, where they resupplied themselves.

After arriving at the Pirates Haven star cluster, she moved her forces to the only inhabitable planet in the system. There she seized control of the planet and the cluster from the Pirate Lord, "Bloody" James Kaiten. Pirates from her old holdings, as well other pirate bands, continued to flock to her banner in the cluster.

In the years after taking the Pirates Haven star cluster, she set up and fortified her position, where she began to have her techs build their own light BattleMechs from supplies and parts acquired in raids over the years. The Brigand was used to make money as well as strengthen her pirate band. She designed it to have minimal armor in back, to guarantee that her MechWarriors would keep fighting and not retreat.

By 3067, her band had benefited from the secession of the Calderon Protectorate from Taurian Concordat and the death of two of its worlds. She began striking the Protectorate with the new Battle Armor her raiding forces had been fielding.

The Jihad and Her Demise

During the Jihad, Lady Death led her Death's Consorts in assaulting her own former kingdom the Tortuga Dominion, destroying its current rulers the pirate band known as the Tortuga Fusiliers. After reasserting her control over the Dominion, she then moved on to enter the service of the Malagrotta Cooperative with a Letter of Marque. Which she leads her people into fighting pirate invested Cooperative, as mercenaries. However, in October 3076, she was allegedly murdered by the Cooperative's elected leader Marion Whillshire.

BattleMechs

• "Lady Death" piloted a Banshee, which she acquired after she murdered its pilot, Jack Magee.

Notes

Though not publicly known, Word of Blake had aided Lady Death in early 3060s just as she escaped New Syrtis. However, the nature of this aid has never been specified.

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Periphery
• Field Manual: Updates
• Handbook: Major Periphery States
• Jihad Hot Spots: 3076
• Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers
• Opportunity (short story)
• The Periphery
• Technical Readout: 3067
• Technical Readout: 3075
• Touring the Stars: Tortuga Prime