Editing TAND:Mordecai (section)

==Background==
'''Navigators of the Fleet'''<br>
House Aulus is a small House, as the Navis Nobilite go, and a relatively new one, being an off-shoot of House Gorgonius for a mere four hundred years. Rather than its' ancestral house's tendency to spend their lives until their mastery on a handful of Imperial core-worlds (and returning to the House's holdings after a century or so of service on the ships of the Imperium), member of House Aulus spend their whole lives on ships of the Imperial Navy; family units of navigators are kept together on the same ship while the young are raised, and are responsible for education and training - the young go from ship to ship to further their education until they are ready to assist in their elders' job of navigation through the Empyrean. All members, without exception, serve on Naval vessels for their entire lives, save for only a few who are dedicated to the management of the House.

'''An Inconvenience to the House'''<br>
Mordecai was born on the fleet battleship "Saint Alestine" to two navigators of little consequence - at least, that's how he remembers it. He spent the first half-dozen years of his life under their tutelege and care, and then moved on to a series of other teachers, none of whom he stayed with for more than a handful of years. By the age of 12 he had developed what was seen as moderately promising talent... and an unfortunate reputation for causing trouble for other members of the House. Whether it was by forging love letters between a particularly strict teacher and the chief gunnery officer (the latter of which was horrified and spent much of her time over the next dozen years seeking solace in the ship's shrine) or whether it was his delving into some of the less desirable deeds of his ancestors, he had made a name for himself as something of an inconvenience.

'''Free Thinker, Free of Responsibilities'''<br>
Perhaps the most appalling for the dignity of the House was his views on the Imperial Cult and the Ecclesiarchy, which he was quite fond of expressing in ways both subtle and anything but. "Shepherds..." (which clerics sometimes liked) "... shearing the flock" was the least of his views. Corrupt, decadent, next to useless, pedantic, dull, slack-jawed fools - Mordecai thought of the members of the Ministrorum as all of these and more; a view that hasn't yet changed. The Emperor is, of course, holy (about the only thing the cassocked asses got right) - anyone who can see the eternal beacon of the Astronomicon can agree with that. But if He were to waken today (and he had to be sleeping - else He would no doubt have torched all those self-righteous pricks in a moment... Emperor knows Mordecai sometimes wished he could do so), simply seeing what the Ecclesiarchy had done to Humanity in His Name would probably put Him right back to sleep... permanently. It probably hasn't helped that most clergy he's interacted with see him as less than human, of course.

After he reached his majority at 14 (in a Navigator House, such comes early; the sooner one starts working, the more profit to the House), he served as one of the relief Navigators upon the frigate "Light of Heaven", and there he stayed for nearly a decade.

'''A Dismaying Post'''<br>
At about this time, the pirate raider "Widowed Mother's Tears" came across a rather hard-to-explain set of documents penned perhaps a dozen decades ago by a young Navigator by the name of Titus Aulus, who had since become the head of the House. Desiring that the unfortunate documents not fall into the hands of the Inquisition, the Ministrorum or (worst of all) a rival House, Titus arranged a trade - a moderately inconvenient member of his house for the pirates, and peace and tranquility for Titus in the form of burnt parchment.
This arrangement, while imminently suitable both to Titus and to Arsen, captain of the Tears, was most definitely not to young Mordecai Aulus' liking at all. He spent several years chafing at the "contract" and plotting both escape and revenge (whether upon Arsen or Titus he was most undecided).
His chance came when the Tears took on a Naval logistics vessel that was carrying several smaller scouting vessels and fighters - including two warp-capable vessels little larger than shuttles. While the loot piled up and gathered dust, he carefully acquired and studied piloting manuals, systems' records and even such things as the habits and patrol patterns of the fighters that guarded the hollow asteroid where Arsen kept his findings.
Taking advantage of a layover to drop off the cargo of an unfortunate free trader, he slipped through the guards patrolling the inside of the base, killing them with his deadly eye whenever he could, seized the small vessel and drove out a hole in the hanger bay door made with a torpedo from the small craft. He escaped the patrolling fighters and immediately entered the warp as soon as he could, making it all the way to Footfall, where he quietly looked for a ship that would take him on.

'''Never Again'''<br>
To Mordecai, what will bring him out of his trials and above his enemies is knowledge; both of the power of the Navigator genes and of whatever he can find to wield against them. He desires to know more of ancient legends and hidden treasures not just for the lust for discovery, but for the power and wealth they can bring... power he can use to protect himself or even, one day, to topple those who have wronged him.