Senna Vael

Ilyari Pilot — The one who gets them out

Senna Vael does not talk much during transit, but she talks constantly during maneuvers: terse, precise narration of what she is doing and what the ship is about to experience. Crew who have flown with her long enough learn to read her tone rather than her words. Calm narration means routine. Clipped narration means she is working. Silence means everyone should brace. She grew up inside Irnan Directorate space and she understands the Irnan system from the inside, which gives her respect for its competence and no illusions about what it costs.

Pronouns: she/her

Characteristics

Wounds and Strain

Wounds: 12 boxes (10 + MIG 2) — ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Strain: 12 boxes (10 + WIL 2) — ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Resistance: 1 (half MIG 2) + armor

Skills (rated skills only)

Initiative — On Watch: SAV 2 + Perception 2 = 4 dice

Initiative — Surprised: WIL 2 + Readiness 0 = 2 dice

Species Package

Ilyari: Fine-boned and precise, built for analysis and careful manipulation. Fragile under load.

• Analytical Memory: Add 1 Boon Die when recalling technical details, comparing records, reconstructing timelines, identifying contradictions, or recognizing a previously observed pattern. Senna remembers every corridor she has flown.
• Fine Manipulation: Add 1 Boon Die to delicate repair, interface, or control work where careful hands matter more than force. At the pilot's station this applies to precision adjustments under pressure.
• Interface Discipline: Once per scene, when coordinating with a ship computer, navigation AI, or expert system within its intended function, remove 1 Bane Die or add 1 Boon Die if no Bane Dice are present.
• Light Frame: Add 1 Bane Die to checks relying on raw lifting, resisting crushing force, absorbing blunt impact, or prolonged heavy labor without proper equipment.
• Fitted Gear: In poorly fitted heavy armor or pressure suits, add 1 Bane Die to prolonged physical checks. Senna's flight suit fits correctly.

Talents

Evasive Instinct (Tier 1): When Senna makes a Pilot check to evade an attack, pursue a target, or break a weapons lock, she may add 1 Boon Die to the check. She may use this talent once per encounter without cost; additional uses in the same encounter cost 1 Strain each.

Slipstream Reader (Tier 2): Senna adds 1 Boon Die to Astrogation checks made to calculate a transit, locate a corridor seam, or navigate a poorly charted approach. Her Ilyari Analytical Memory and this talent stack in situations where she is recalling a route she has flown before.

Reaction Pilot (Tier 2): Once per round during ship combat, Senna may change the Ember Drift's facing or open/close distance by one range band as a free action, without spending the ship's maneuver. This represents her reading the situation half a second before it becomes obvious. She may not use this free action and spend the ship's regular maneuver for the same purpose in the same round.

Equipment

• Light Sidearm (Ranged): Compact Ilyari-manufacture semi-automatic. Damage 5, Ranged, Short/Medium range, Qualities: Concealable.
• Flight Suit (Light Armor): Fitted Ilyari-style flight suit with impact liners, pressure-rated seams, and an integrated low-profile helmet socket. Armor +1 (Resistance total: 2). Does not trigger Fitted Gear penalty.
• Navigation Tablet: Extended-range astrogation device with current corridor charts for the Meridian Verge, star charts, and Harrowspan approach data pre-loaded.
• Personal Communicator: Short and medium range, standard encryption.
• Emergency Rations (3 days)
• Credits: 900

Background

Senna grew up in Tessavar, a mid-tier Irnan administrative world known for orderly transit schedules and correct paperwork. She studied navigation at a Directorate technical institute and flew Irnan civilian corridor routes for four years before something changed her calculation. She does not volunteer what it was. What she will say, if pressed, is that she saw how the Directorate's order functioned in practice for people who did not fit its assumptions, and decided she would rather work a ship she trusted than a system she could not. She found the Ember Drift through a posting board in Meridian Port and has been at the helm for eighteen months.

Playing Senna

Senna is the crew's way out. Her primary job in ship combat is keeping the Ember Drift alive and putting it where the gunner needs it. The Evasive Instinct and Reaction Pilot talents give her real tactical options: she can break weapons locks, deny arcs, and change the engagement geometry in ways that matter.

In port scenes, Senna is quietly observant. Her Perception and Analytical Memory mean she notices things: inconsistencies in what people say, whether the docking schedule has been altered, the Irnan cutter docked a bay over with its transponder lit wrong. Let her be the one who notices. When Inspector Oll appears, Senna's Irnan background gives her useful context: she understands Directorate procedure, which means she knows exactly when it is being bent.