The 10,000 Dawns Wiki

"Traitors, Pirates, and Thieves: Part 1: Innocence Shattered" is a short story by Jo Smiley which was published in "Poor Man's Iliad." It features the character Jade Darkshadow, and details her transition from a small child on the Outer Rim to a member of one of the largest and most influential Rimward gangs in the 10,000 Dawns.

Plot summary[]

When this story starts, Jade is an eight-year-old child on the Rimward moon of Mimas, which orbits Saturn. She and her brother Ivan live in an abusive household, and one day, they decide to run away and start a gang of street kids. They call it Gang Darkshadow, and they are relatively successful, since they don't have very much competition on the small border moon. After a few years of this, Jade decides to take the gang to Titan, the big leagues.

On Titan, they encounter another gang, the Cast Iron Jabberwocks, who claim that Gang Darkshadow has trampled on their turf. A fight ensues, and Ivan is killed. His death causes Jade to launch a decade-long quest for revenge. In anger and grief she disbands Gang Darkshadow and sets out on her own to find a gang powerful enough to give her the tools she will need to take down her brother's killer.

The story ends with Jade finding a way into the Index, a large Rimward gang. She still has not found her revenge yet, but she is maturing into a cunning and manipulative woman with a strong lust for power. Her story will continue in "Traitors, Pirates, and Thieves: Part 2."