Ashley's birth was more of an accident than anything else in her mother's life. Her mother, being an 'indentured' employee of a rather notorious pimp who controlled a vast amount of business in Manhattan's underground nightlife. From prostitution and running brothels, all the way up to drug and weapon dealing to gangs and even spaceborne pirates. Ashley's father the pimp had allowed Elizabeth to keep the child with the idea that he would use her as a drug mule seeing as the Police forces would never search a child for such things. Unfortunately for Patrick however, during one drug moving operation through a busy Starport on the planet's surface when Ashley was thirteen years old, she, on her mother's instruction sought out an LPI Customs officer by means of shouting and screaming at him from across the way, forcing her 'escorts' to let her go as she demanded that the LPI officer speak to her in private because she "Had a secret". That secret being that she had been wearing a lead lined bra which had several bags of Cardamine powder stuffed into it, this news forced the LPI to take her into Protective Custody where she revealed all details to them about how she had been used in Drug deals.
Unbeknownst to Ashley, the news her father received about his shipment never arriving at it's destination had immediately caused him to suspect that Elizabeth had something to do with this, moving Patrick to promptly have Elizabeth executed by two of his 'employees'. In the months thereafter, the LPI SWAT team launched raids on several brothels and safehouses owned by Patrick, discovering hundreds of illegal weapons, thousands of pounds of Cardamine and freeing nearly two hundred prostitutes, all thanks to information provided after hours of interviews by LPI detectives with Ashley, her father was later accused of several murders, drug trafficking and sex slavery charges, the murder charges were dropped thanks to his lawyers, but the combination of other charges has ensured that Patrick Benson would spend nearly, if not all of the rest of his life in the Libertonian prison system.
One might think that after this, life for Ashley would become easier, certainly peaceful, but by no means easy, from the ages of fourteen until eighteen, Ashley spent her life in various different Libertonian Child Protective Services facilities, which might make one think "Oh how nice, she's protected and well fed" which is of course true, but barring that, the facilities were much like juvenile detention centers, without the armed guards. Multiple children to a room, uniforms, curfews and strict rules, all in the name of "Protecting the nation's youth from 'at-risk' living situations".
At the age of eighteen she was discharged from the Manhattan City CPS facility and managed to find a job working as a Photographer for a small Manhattan City based news agency owned ultimately by the Colony News Service, yet still regarded 'local' by the inhabitants of Manhattan City. A job which she quickly fell in love with, photographing all sorts of different things, nearly anything she could point her camera at, anything close enough to zoom in on, even off the job she was hard pressed to be seen without a camera hanging from her neck or in her hands. After two years working at her job, she developed a relationship with a journalist named Anthony Ericsson who she had worked with numerous times. Quickly it blossomed into something both of them came to take seriously, and after a year together he proposed to her and they were married soon after. Things were really beginning to look good for Ashley until the night of her honeymoon when for reasons unknown to investigators Ashley went through some sort of mental breakdown, assumed yet not confirmed due to immense amounts of stress, she is believed to have gone into a violent fit of rage, as her newly wed husband was found dead in their room aboard the Luxury Liner Hawaii with a metal letter opener stuck into his throat.
After this incident Ashley hijacked a small civilian shuttle from the Hawaii landing bay and disappeared for two years, possibly fleeing into the protection of the Maltese Nation or Liberty Rogues before reappearing on Barrier Gate Station. Desperate and with no place else to go, Ashley offered what little flight skills she had to the Reaver Mercenary Company, begging to be taken in by them as she needed protection, and a way to make enough money to live off of.
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> Notes: >Current employer: <Unknown. >Current location: <MIA. >Risk factor: <Unknown. >Diplomatic usefulness: <Average Possible past affiliations and Criminal accusations may interfere with Libertonian government contracts otherwise employee's calm demeanor and wellspoken nature can be quite useful >Knowledge usefulness: <Low Medium - Academically average, though particularly well versed in Political causes and issues. >Practical usefulness: <Medium - Self Taught Flight and Combat tactics and abilities, willingness to kill if necessary, focused mainly on self preservation. >Overall rating: <0/10.
![[Image: CHI4y9i.png]](https://i.imgur.com/CHI4y9i.png)