Sayl Leikvold

Sayl Leikvold was a Leik pirate, criminal, and slaver, the second-in-command of Zhin-Vel and later the final leader of the slaving syndicate Red Eclipse.

Early years
Born Sayl Keshree on the Leik homeworld of Mir Kaldu`uz, she was in and out of juvenile detention facilities for most of her early life on charges of drug possession, petty larceny, and assault. From many of her disreputable contacts, she learned to use a blaster and a knife as well as her Leik barb-lashes. At the age of sixteen, she stowed away aboard a freighter bound for the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob. En route to Sileria, the ship was captured by Red Eclipse forces led by none other than Zhin-Vel himself.

While most of the crew was taken prisoner, Sayl fought back, managing to kill two of her attackers and blind a third by slashing his eyes with one of her barb-lashes. Refusing to put him out of his misery, she hamstrung him instead. Amused by her sadism, Zhin-Vel offered her a place in Red Eclipse. Leaving the crippled attacker to be blown up along with the ship, she joined the Zyked slaver.

At Zhin-Vel's right hand
Only months after Sayl joined Red Eclipse, its leader Selti Lurn retired to live off his slaving wealth, and Zhin-Vel easily ascended to the head of the organization. He kept his new Leik henchwoman nearby, and consequently she had many opportunities to learn the ins and outs of the trade. Zhin-Vel gradually increased her responsibilities, starting her as a thug and assassin but letting her work up to captaincy of a ship, then an entire convoy. She relished the increasing opportunity and remained bloodthirsty and sadistic to stay in Zhin-Vel's good graces, and Zhin-Vel himself was pleased to have a capable subordinate who relieved him of many of his day-to-day concerns of running the syndicate, allowing him to live a life of luxury in his fortress on Harth Gool. At some point during this period, Sayl abandoned her surname and began to call herself "Sayl Leikvold", which meant, "Sayl, bane of Leiks," in her native language. The monicker stuck and eventually few knew she had ever been called anything else.

By 109 ABY, Sayl was the second most powerful being in Red Eclipse, after Zhin-Vel himself. In that year, the Nightside Raiders were wiped out by the Golden Empire, and the Empire began to suspect the presence of another powerful criminal outfit in the region. In the following years, Sayl worked to stymie the efforts of the Empire's Centurions, secreting some of her agents and bribed officials off member worlds of the Empire before they could be found, and having others strategically assassinated.

The Empire attacks
In 114 ABY, however, the Royal Navy captured a Red Eclipse freighter and liberated its slave cargo, including a group of Heshoos, the natives of Harth Gool. Rin Sakaros and her brother Tariun learned of the existence of Harth Gool and put all their efforts into finding it. Tipped off, Sayl Leikvold tried to persuade Zhin-Vel to flee the planet, but the Zyked obstinately refused. He did, however, help prepare a defense of the planet on the off-chance that the Empire found them.

Inevitably, the Empire did locate Harth Gool, and launched an invasion with far more of the Armada than Red Eclipse could ever hope to repel. Zhin-Vel departed his palace, telling Sayl he was going to coordinate defensive positions and deal with the Heshoo uprisings which were crippling his defenses, and instructing her to continue coordinating the space battle. She did so until the fight became hopeless, skipping out of the palace one step ahead of Tariun Sakaros and a Massassi Cohort. Barely managing to run the blockade in her modified freighter, she escaped to hyperspace.

Sayl mourned the death of her mentor and leader for several weeks, until scattered reports from other survivors of the massacre at Harth Gool came together to paint an even worse picture: immediately after leaving Sayl, Zhin-Vel had fled the planet, leaving his forces to their fate and escaping before the ground assault started in earnest. Occasional word from Red Eclipse agents and informants throughout the Empire confirmed sightings of the Zyked slaver. Livid and feeling betrayed, Sayl contemplated murdering her boss, but ultimately saw a better option and had her people track him. Once she had a good idea of his travel plans, she passed the information to the Order of Keltrayu through several intermediaries. After a failed attempt to apprehend Zhin-Vel on Synno, the Order finally caught him on Haerch and killed him.

In command
Recognizing that Red Eclipse was splintering, with its main base lost and its leader dead, Sayl Leikvold acted quickly to assume leadership of the organization. She had dissident captains and rivals assassinated and replaced with her own loyalists, and paid off the right people to allow the slave trade to continue on the fringes of the Empire. By the end of 115 ABY, she had emerged as the clear leader of the syndicate.

Business, however, continued to suffer. Bolstered by their elimination of Zhin-Vel, the Golden Empire continued the Hunt for Red Eclipse, ruthlessly executing cells wherever they could be found. Sayl's attempts to open new markets, and even continue existing ones, were continually thwarted, and confidence in her rule began to weaken. Knowing that her grip was tenuous, and that much of Red Eclipse's weakness was due to public perception of the Empire's invincibility, Sayl began to search for chinks in the armor of her aggressor.

Looking outside the traditional markets in the former Tetrarchy, Sayl began to examine the worlds which had served the Empire before the Great Liberation. Abstalia seemed almost too inviting, and information was too prevalent about its lack of defenses—Leikvold suspected a trap. Instead, she focused on the lightly-defended Bolera, which was deeper in Royal territory and, she felt, less likely to seem a target. A few careful raids evaded Royal forces and captured Athan slaves, escaping without detection.

Emboldened, Leikvold led the Red Eclipse fleet to Bolera, launching a large-scale raid to abduct thousands of slaves. An hour in, however, fully half the Glorious Armada appeared from hyperspace, deployed to pin the Red Eclipse forces between itself and the planet's gravity well. The weakness of Abstalia, the seemingly greater appeal of Bolera, the evasion of local Royal police, and even the capture of the first Athan slaves had been an enormous ruse, a trap constructed to bait Red Eclipse into the very fatal blunder that it had made. The Red Eclipse fleet was slaughtered by the Empire, and Sayl Leikvold was blown up along with her command ship.

Appearance and personality
Sayl Leikvold was 5'6" (1.68 meters) tall, and had the dull gray skin common to Leiks. Her torso, forearms, and cheek were marked with scars, both from knives and barb-lashes of other Leiks.  She wore her black hair in deliberately haphazard styles, and usually kept her own barb-lashes uncoiled.  She wore tough clothing which was difficult to rip, often supplemented with pieces of armor, and carried a variety of weapons.

Female Leiks were usually not considered warriors on Mir Kaldu`uz, and Sayl Leikvold had to struggle among her early criminal colleagues to be taken seriously. As a result, she carried into her adult life an aggressive, assertive, and ruthless personality. She had no compunction about killing when it could be of use to her and cutting losses to prevent worse ones. She was loyal to Zhin-Vel, but when she discovered that her loyalty had been met with betrayal, she was willing to aid even the Golden Empire to avenge herself.