Talina Svensgaard

Tigran Unbound pirate, Talina Svensgaard was one of the most celebrated (or notorious) pirate captains of the Web. She was primarily active in the late 30s, as conflicts between the various Core powers such as the Leviathan War opened up lots of opportunities for an enterprising pirate captain.

Talina had been a gladiator in the fighting pits of Alter-Dragon; most of her crew were similarly from Alter-Dragon. Unlike some other captains, purely in it for the booty, Talina was an avowed freedom fighter against the oppression of the Fringe by Core nations. She made it a point to attack all of the Core powers; in her mind they were all equally guilty of oppression of the Fringe, whether it was the Tasnican AAA corporations operating under the guise of the Extraterritoriality Act, the Guardians acting under a facade of friendship in the Confederation and its similar organizations, or the political ideology of the Communist Protectorate. She even engineered operation "Seraphim Wing," dispatching four captured Seraphim to the Great Powers of the Core to strike back at them. One of the pilot involved was her own son, Barry Svensgaard.

Her ship, the Tigress, was a highly modified Speedy-class light freighter. At range, it looked innocuous enough, but at close range it had enough bite to take down cargo ships, passenger liners, and other lucrative targets. Under Talina's command, it even participated in the attack on the Sathanas.

The forties, however, were a much more difficult time for the Unbound. SRAN, the GSF, and the RAF all stepped up their pirate hunting efforts, although the Scandian League did offer covert support to certain Unbound privateers (mainly as a way to stick it to SRAN, the GSF, and the RAF.) Although the Tasnicans, under Rycar Mountbatten, took a more defensive approach by securing designated "space lanes", the Guardians were more aggressive, offering bounties on noted pirates.

However, even in this environment, Talina lucked out by stumbling on the luxury space liner Queen Zelda II, which was carrying Princess Nadaya Pendouris. She boldly plan to use the princess's life to bargain for the removal of all GSF bases in Alter. But then Manta showed up and rescued the princess, and separated Talina from her ship and crew in the altercation. Talina vowed revenge on Manta (though, she's hardly the first or last to do so.) Talina crash-landed in an escape pod in Alter-Dragon, where she was rescued by Tadpoleon, L'empeuerer du Simafort. However, her ship, the Tigress, was destroyed by a rival pirate, Bai'dib, whom she has also vowed vengeance upon. Most of her crew was killed, except for her first mate, a reprogrammed RT-series Robot named Chromebeard.

Since that time, her current whereabouts are unknown, though she has acquired a kind of legend, as those in Guardian space colonies tell tales of her scare their children, and she appears as a simulated opponent in the cadet training of virtually every space force in the web. Although Marbles Marlowe has since eclipsed her for leadership of the Unbound, some say she still terrorizes the space lanes, and the Core powers refuse to say anything about it because they know they will never catch her.