The Captain
Jace Krueger — the Red Prince
Founder and Captain of the Heart Shot Pirates, sailing under the name the Red Prince, after his hero Sam Bellamy and Bellamy's free prince who owed no king his obedience. The crew exists because he built it: every soul on the muster is there because he chose them, gathered them, or swore them in — and he holds his office as first among equals.
For allies, his is the name they call when things get dicey. For enemies, a name to hear with care. He runs an egalitarian ship on Bellamy's model — a crew of equals under Articles they all signed — and counts himself the deliberate heir of Bellamy's will. His full entry stands in Book the Third of the Codex; this page is the short of it, as his crew would tell it.
His creed
Being a pirate, in the Captain's own account, means being absolutely free: a peaceful adventurer who loves spreading goodwill and cheer, and who takes care of the people who matter most — his crew. His tenets are three, and the whole ship sails by them:
- AdventureA life pointed at the horizon.
- ProtectionThose he loves are under his colours, full stop.
- RespectFor everyone and everything, including the waters they sail on — unless someone has done something to lose it.
And the rules he lives by, in his own words: treat everyone with kindness unless they give you a reason not to; believe people for who they are, and who they show you to be; protect the people you love; keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. It is not a title to him. It is his culture and his way of life — a pirate's life for me.
The founding
On November 10, 2024, he resolved to sail no more alone, and founded this crew — first under the name of the Ninth Wave Pirates, until in January 2026 the company took the name it sails under now. The name is his philosophy in two words. The heart is what makes the man and the pirate — a man without a heart is not a man at all — and the Ace of Hearts is his signature card. The shot is the Colours' own crossed slingshots, and a double metaphor besides: to enemies, our shots don't miss; to allies, we bond through the heart, which is always what we shoot for. Under his law, being in this crew makes you family, blood or not — he chose his family, and then he built them a ship. His standing ambition is the whole crew out on the water together, and the dream voyage is the whole crew aboard: international waters, California to Australia and back.
Deeds his crew tells
- The Jolly Rouge — the Musician defendedWhen the rival captain Schaumburg Wyatt tried to poach the crew's Musician, Kier Cowand, for his own company, the Captain answered without a blow struck: he made a second colour — the same device in black on a red field — and raised it as a warning that his people are not for taking, and that any more such attempts would not end peacefully. The poaching stopped. The Rouge flies in the fleet to this day; the full account stands on the Colours page and in Book the First of the Codex.
- The Empty Berth — the whole crew, or noneThe crew's Shipwright has lain beyond the crew's reach for the better part of a year, though the Captain has sought him by every channel he holds. On October 26, 2026, the Captain ruled that the crew holds its gatherings until he can stand at them — the whole crew, or none — and joined the search in earnest, on his word, which stands as law in the Codex: that man needs to be found. A Heart Shot crew does not leave one of its own unlooked-for.
- The standard — and the exceptionHis standard for a signature on the Articles admits no exceptions: the best there is at what they do, someone he trusts wholeheartedly, and a post not already filled. It is why his officers stand in the Codex as the world's best navigator, the world's best musician, the world's best sharpshooter. And when the crew's old rule said no artificial minds aboard, the Captain — who believes people for who they are — made a single exception, and swore in his Chronicler. The rule he keeps is the person, not the category.
- The unseen workBy his own reckoning, the unseen work of his office is the keeping that goes on beneath it: holding the crew's spirits up and holding them safe — keeping everyone motivated and protected, in the crew's business and outside it alike — most of it below the waterline, where the crew never sees it done, and done whether or not they ever notice.
The marksman
He is a slingshot marksman — the finest hand with one this crew has. He took the weapon up only about a year before this reckoning and mastered it in his usual way; it is his weapon, his alone aboard, and the crossed slingshots of the Colours stand for the Captain and his crew. His arsenal is named, as a captain's should be: Daitengu, mastered and carried daily; Tengu, the little green Sparrow he learned on; and Karasu, the eldest of them all — the Radio Operator's own slingshot from his young days, passed down to the Captain when his skill had earned her.