Navy life wasn't what it was cracked up to be, Ruby (as his shipmates called him) soon found. As a Asst. Chief Engineer on the Navy ship _Gossamer_, id soon became bored with the technicalities of ship maintenance, getting transferred after only a year to the Naval patrol boat _Brass Foragel_ as the Communications 2nd Mate. During two even more boring years at sea, Ruby performed his duties with rote indifference until one day, the Captain, 1st through 3rd Officers, both pilots and the 1st gunner all caught a horrid infection from a research vessel boarded earlier in the day. Being the only able-bodied person left on the boat with piloting experience, the ailing captain gave Rubadel a field promotion to Acting Captain. Id rushed the boat to port and recieved a commendation and a promotion, as well as a transfer to pilot of the _Brass Foragel_ (the pilot and his mates all died of the infection).

Three years as Chief Pilot were a true joy to Rubadel: his childhood dream fulfilled; but when the oppurtunity arose he opted for another transfer, this time to a special-ops section. He just figured he would get to pilot the boat to wherever the other commandos needed to be, but the Navy had other plans: he spent another three years of hard duty in an anti-pirate team.

Three years as a commando rubbed Rubadel the wrong way. After 20 formal requests for transfer, ids classification officer grew spiteful of Rubadel's lack of patriotism and had id transferred: but to a remote inland naval-supply depot as the 2nd Assistant Quartermaster. Rubadel complained to ids superiors but despite ids honors, they said that id _had_ requested a transfer, so that's what id got.

After nearly ten years in the Navy, Rubagel had grown to hate not only the Navy, but the ocean, the boats, the animals, the sunsets, the beach, the sand, and everything else about his miserable little planet. When the time came for Rubadel to resign for another two years, id laughed in the classification officers face as id ripped the contract into little pieces. The sea was no longer an option, so Rubadel turned to the stars.

Mannerisms/Attitudes: Individualistic, hates authority, easily becomes bored - slow to anger, wants to be in control of his own destiny, prefers hands-on work and mechanics to high-tech (prefers to pilot over autopiloting), somewhat of dreamer, makes fishing and naval references often, swears occasionally to frequently (hey, he's a sailor, what can i say :), has a fear of diseases, enjoys the company of animals, has grown somewhat obsessive-compulsive about "things going where there supposed to go" and wastefulness, "don't you think you might not want to waste all that fresh water on clean yer shoes, ya stupid $#@#%."