Bertilak La Verde was a human colonial, born into a wealthy old family on the rich industrial corporate world of Quandixe. Although expected to assume a position in the family company after his education, this exceptionally intelligent and gifted young man had his own ideas - his interests lay in history and exploration, not fiscal reports and accountancy. On the day of his graduation at Quandixe’s finest university he disappeared, along with a substantial sum from the family coffers, and took to the spacelanes in an old Cobra MkIII. After only a few years he had traded his way to financial security, and fought his way to Elite rank.
For decades he roamed the 'lanes and backwaters of the Eight, all the while immersing himself ever more deeply in ancient Terran history, both real and mythical. One fine day, whilst meandering around the Steel Halo, an isolated and somewhat troubled sector in the north-east corner of the fifth chart, he suffered a misjump between Zaenza and Lazaso, and found himself surrounded by Thargoid warships. No stranger to the exigencies of interstellar space, he dispatched them after a vicious firefight, and still having plenty of quirium fuel, was about to continue on his way when he spotted something way off in the distance - a beautiful blue gas giant. He set off to investigate, but was soon dodging and weaving through hundreds of asteroid swarms - asteroid swarms that turned out to contain a high percentage of what are known as 'treasuroids' - near-mythical 'roids rich in gemstones and rare metals.
Quietly and methodically, Bertilak La Verde took full advantage of his good fortune, and was soon an extremely wealthy man - and he had a vision, a purpose for his wealth. He would construct a station in orbit above the gas giant that would become a centre of excellence in all things to do with starships and space, a place that only carefully vetted veteran spacers, scientists, and hackers would be invited to - somewhere beyond the reach of GalCop. When the mammoth undertaking was finally completed, Avernus Orbital hung majestically above the blue gas giant, which he named Lago - his love of ancient history influencing his choice of names.
Here it was, in his twilight years, that he envisaged and established the Green Knights of Lago - a hand-picked squadron of Elite combateers, flying heavily-armed ships - the fearsome Green Geckos, reputed to mount a double-barrelled military laser. Their sole mission - to find and challenge other highly-ranked pilots in single-combat, to test their mettle, to closely examine whether they are truly worthy of their rank. Originally based on Avernus Orbital, these ships also became the Lago defence force, in case any pilot should be so utterly foolhardy as to attack the orbital, or to repel attacks by Thargoid warships - who have now learnt to leave Avernus Orbital well alone!
The Green Gecko will only appear very rarely - but it is out there - and it is hunting you!
~~~~~
The Green Gecko is based on Griff’s Gecko, and I am greatly indebted to him for his help, as I am to several other people (all credited in the readme), from whom I have begged, stolen, and borrowed the constituents of this OXP… all I did was imagine, instigate and assemble it.
The leaner, meaner Green Gecko XL can be downloaded here, from its
![[EliteWiki]](/images/elitewikismall.png){kind=small}
Wiki page, and from the in-game expansions manager.Although this ship is at its best with full shaders, it also looks fine with shaders disabled, and works perfectly well on unshadered machines… enjoy!
A Skunkworks production, in association with DS’s Seedy Space Bar.
However, I learned my lesson and the second meeting was less one-sided (OK he ran away, twice!). I confidently predict that the itchy-fingered fiend will soon be cargo and his pretty ship rendered to filings . . . (or perhaps not).
