The Mercenary King

Marcis DeHavilund seen here at a surrender negotiation
for the Carleon Planetary Defense Force.

Marcis DeHavilund was born into abject poverty on the pirate world of Megiddo.  The surface of Megiddo is a baking hell of scorching deserts and jagged mountains.  The settlers there live short, brutal lives scrounging from the starship wrecks.  Megiddo has few natural resources and the only real hope of escaping from the surface is to be recognized by one of the pirate gangs as a worthwhile recruit, DeHavilund was one such recruit. 

Raised in an atmosphere that doesn't tolerate weakness and doesn't reward compassion, he quickly established himself as one of the most ruthless and daring pirate of any of the Megiddo gangs.  Within a few years of coming up he killed his commander in a sanctioned duel and ascended to leadership.  However, he knew that there was no possibility of accumulating the kind of power he desired by remaining a space pirate, interstellar trade had never recovered from the Fall of the Federation and there simply wasn't enough volume to be truly profitable.  So instead DeHavilund took his crew into another business altogether. They hired themselves out as mercenaries to planetary governments, crushing rebellions, conquering rivals, training planetary troops.  Even though they were relatively small in numbers to begin with, there arsenal of advanced weapons and there experience working together, not to mention there ruthless nature made them extremely effective and they continued to expand steadily over time.  Soon enough, there came a time when a planet was unable to meet the demands for payment, a small mining world in the Hyades Cluster called Chironen.  When this happened, DeHavilund simply executed the planet's leadership and announced he was now ruler and no one had the power to resist him. 

That was ten years ago and DeHavilund and his Maruaders have continued to hire themselves out to the highest bidder, they have also made themselves the masters of several minor worlds throughout former human space and use them as safe havens and staging areas.