OV the Wave Pilot¶
Domains: Fate, Knowledge, Storm, Sun
OV the Wave Pilot, the Navigator, an enigmatic humanoid figure described as masculine, appears to live inside the pilot-wave. In those rare instances where a mortal is directly exposed to the energies that propel ships across the sea of stars, they occasionally report seeing a figure that matches the description of OV.
Lost ships sometimes find their navigation systems lighting up, a clear path home suddenly visible where no such path was possible before. OV aids those who are lost regardless of their affiliation with law or chaos, and is one of the Lords of Balance. His herald works to stop conflicts by guiding ships around and past routes that might cause them to intercept hostile entities.
OV is the god of navigators and those who seek safe passage through treacherous scenarios. Because he cares little for the politics of the timescape, he is respected by the time raiders, though none would call him or any other being their "god."
When a time raider swears, "OV guide me," the meaning is not, "Show me the right thing to do." But: "Show me a way out of this mess."
The Calling of Cho'kassa the Time Rider¶
Domains: Storm, Sun
"Take the helm and damn them all!!"
Cho'kassa and her family-clan were prisoners of UNISOL being taken to Ordos, the capital of Axiom for trial on charges of piracy and insurgency. UNISOL, she deemed, made arrests first and invented whichever laws were convenient afterward.
Halfway through their journey, the UNISOL corvette was attacked by a protean heavy patrol vessel. The smaller protean ship latched itself onto the hull of the UNISOL corvette, lamprey-like, and its digestive acids quickly burned a hole in the plasteel, allowing the protean boarding party to invade.
Though the rest of her captured clan believed the proteans had, for some reason, come to free them, Cho'kassa was not so optimistic. Eventually, the boarding party made it to the prison deck and opened the cells. They were evidently as surprised to find the imprisoned kuran'zoi as the time raiders were to be rescued by proteans!
"You were prisoners, now you are our thralls. Obey and earn your freedom."
The rest of her clan were unsure of their options, but Cho'kassa grabbed the protean captain's hardlight pistol out of his hand and shot him in the chest. Her clan were now sure.
With that pistol shot, the fight for the UNISOL corvette became a running battle between three factions. The time raiders stole weapons from the bodies their enemies left behind, and the small band fought their way to the bridge, none knowing what they would do once they got there.
On gaining the bridge, messages blared from every signal receiver. Each side demanding the time raiders join them and defeat their enemies. Many promises and threats were made. The kuran'zoi looked to Cho'kassa.
"Take the helm and damn them all!" she called out. "There must be a way home!" And in that instant, the navigation screens sprung to life. "Look!" her brother said. A route had already been plotted. One that made no literal sense. Was the ship's logic system malfunctioning?
Was there a way out? Could the impossible course on the star chart be trusted? It was a moot point, as the ship was still caught in the grip of the protean's ship's sucker-mouth.
"There is a way" her brother said, but pulling away from the protean ship would require disabling all the safety circuits preventing the star-engine from going into overload. It might damn them all, but for at least a moment, the ship would have enough power to rip itself away from its parasitic attacker.
Cho'kassa ordered her clan to hold the bridge and seal the door behind her, and she fled alone to the engine room. She picked up a protean rifle as she ran, and though she could hear the battle between the memonek and proteans raging, her path was mercifully clear of enemies.
Finally facing the great star-engine of the UNISOL ship, Cho'kassa punched in the override codes, and used her recovered rifle to blast the shielding off the star core. Bathed in brilliant yellow light that was killing her second by second, Cho'kassa leapt off the gangplank across the safety gap, and into the star core itself.
Others thought this a strange way to end one's life. But Cho'kassa had seen the sign of the Wave Pilot when the navigation screens on the bridge came to life, and instinct compelled her. Some insight said that only if she joined with the ship could she save her clan. When her consciousness continued even after the engine disintegrated her body, she knew her faith proved correct.
Now part of the ship itself, Cho'kassa could see the relationship between time and space. The Wave Pilot appeared before her, an enigmatic figure made of gold-green light, and conveyed without words the secret. The dark star, Procellon Beta, warped space and time around it, and that was why the plotted chart that appeared on the bridge could not be understood.
The energies of the wounded star-engine ripped through the ship killing the memonek and proteans onboard, but did not breach the door to the bridge. Cho'kassa piloted her new body with her family nestled safely inside through the course the wave pilot had set.
The harrowing, twisting path brought the ship close to the horizon of the dark star, through an inverted waveform, and they emerged weeks before they set out. Cho'kassa followed the course until it brought them to the UNISOL ship well before the events that led to the capture of her people.
With her clan manning the blaster turrets, Cho'kassa destroyed the memonek ship. Erasing the timeline in which they had originally been captured.
"What just happened?" one kuran'zoi asked. "How can we be here, now?"
The ship returned to manual control. Cho'kassa was no longer the ship. Her brother looked through the viewscreen at the starry sea outside, and said, "Only the stars know."
Cho'kassa the Time Rider is the herald of OV the Wave Pilot invoked by those who are lost and yearn for home. She sometimes appears riding her single-seat metal star bike, the Wavebreaker which she employs as a tug, pulling ships that ventured too close to a dark star out of danger.