Backstory

Born within the claustrophobic confines of The Spire of Dividends on Encarys, Arthur Pendas—designated Asset-882—has spent his entire life climbing the corporate ladder of The Board. While his title is 'Junior Compliance Officer,' his personnel file hides a terrifying secret: he is completely incompetent at actual administration. In a society where 'Termination' is taken literally, Arthur survives not by doing his job well (his grasp of the holy bylaws is tenuous at best), but by mastering the art of looking busy and physically avoiding his superiors.

He spends his days in The Median Operations Tier, shuffling between departments with a hurried walk and a stack of meaningless papers. When The Mortal Veil pirates—whom The Board calls 'Third Party Security Consultants'—arrive for their laundered credits, Arthur is often the one shoved forward to hand over the physical crates, mostly because he is the only one in his department fit enough to lift them. He treats these terrifying encounters with pirate warlords with the same glazed detachment he applies to a jammed printer, viewing a blaster to the face as merely 'aggressive negotiation tactics.' He is the embodiment of the Peter Principle, having reached a position he is unqualified for, and now desperately tries to remain invisible to the auditors.