Karst Sorensen (Khar-st sOr-en-sen)

Karst Sorensen (a.k.a. Bort D. Huckleberry) (She/her)

Karst grew up amid a refugee camp on Prest, crowded in amidst the thousands who had taken up residence there under the watchful eye of the Prest Controlling Authority. Her family had been part of a group that had fled the planet Gronkan during a local civil war; already unwanted immigrants, they ran before the fighting could arrive on their doorstep. Not that the camp was much better: fighting between refugee militias and the PCA was frequent, a slowly simmering conflict that threatened to burst into full scale combat. Karst's paternal grandfather had been a soldier for hire, and later a hired explorer. Thanks to the connections he made, he was able to obtain many lost pieces of information about the family's past, especially regarding the Elravian portions of their heritage. Over the course of his travels, he picked up dozens of languages and unusual customs, which he passed on to a receptive Karst. Her paternal grandmother had come from a wealthier-than average Kraeth family who had made their money in small-freight specialty shipping. Grandmother was a logistics expert, helping manage the supply chain to ensure goods arrived on time across perilous expanses. She met Karst's grandfather towards the end of his soldiering, and the two ran off and were married, leaving her kicked out of the family. Their home on Prest, made out of the remains of an ancient spaceship, was the last remnant of her old life, a belated gift from her own mother. Karst's father had been a talented mechanic, bartering his skills for food and supplies for the family and community. His reputation granted him access to the population outside the camp's fences, and he would sometimes bring Karst along on his work trips so that she could see the larger world. Her father was killed in a militia bombing while riding back to the camp gates. Karst's mother died when she was young, on Gronkan. Despite her pleas, Karst never knew the circumstances of her death. Life in the camp was difficult in the best of times, and Karst spent much of her time seeking a way out. She became a well-regarded fixer out in the city, smuggling contraband, procuring fake ID's, and arranging meetings between criminal contacts. Karst didn't enjoy the illicit elements of her work, but they allowed her to make money and live outside the wire. With time, she figured she could raise enough funds and make the right contacts to get off world, and start a new life completely free of her refugee status. But things took a strange turn after her grandfather, her last living relative, passed away. Retrieving some mementos and supplies from the house, she came across an unusual artifact she had seen once before, as a child. A case holding a pair of exotic pistols - the Roses of Soren - supposedly once-belonging to an ancient relative. The Roses had sat dormant for thousands of years, completely inoperable. A chance encounter with a violent sentinel drone forced the weapons into Karst's hands, where she made a surprising discovery: the Roses worked for her, unleashing a torrent of elemental fire. Karst was able to flee the planet, and has begun seeking answers regarding her Elravian heritage and her newfound powers. Who was Soren and the Elravians? How can she channel the element of fire? And does she have a role to play in the larger galaxy?