It is incredible how quickly a life can be reshaped and altered depending on the surrounding circumstances. How incredible it is to have everything you believe in, everything you cared about ripped from your hands before your very eyes and then cruelly being spared from death so you may have to live with the burden of your mistakes, your failures. This is the only thing I can think of to describe the destruction of my vessel, U-552 within Liberty space. To see my crew, my family killed with myself as the only survivor. To see the Buro abandon me for reasons I have not yet discovered.
I often have to remind myself of who I am and who I was so that I do not forget myself in this new life that I have had to shape for myself. I am Aloysius Luth, once a proud member of the Buro der Marineintelligenz. It was I that pioneered the brutally effective U-Korps, it was I that took charge of the raids upon Libertonian shipping and it was I that brought a sense of terror into the hearts of the enemies of Rheinland.
And yet now here I am, sitting within my ship in the hangars of whatever unlawful base happens to be closest. My past is just that, my past and I now turn to my future. I have accepted one undeniable truth in my life, that being that I am an effective killer. I have been trained and honed to be a deadly instrument of war and truly I know no other way. It is with this in mind that I have turned to the much loathed profession of being a Mercenary. To think, I am now among the ranks of the lowest of the low in Sirius.
And yet I am not fully one of them, not fully a Mercenary. I am so much more than a mere brute Mercenary. I am a thinker and most of all a warrior. Perhaps I have compromised my integrity by allowing myself to be bought like a commodity. Still, the riches I have acquired in just a short few days, so much more than I could have ever made in the Buro have done wonders to motivate me.
There is always a glimmer of hope throughout the darkness that are our lives. I must admit, I have made quite the reputation for myself with the Lane Hackers and other unlawful entities within the house of Liberty. They seem to treat me as one of their own, they pay me quite handsomely too and have even given me access to their Bounty Boards. It is with my flights with them and their subsequent payments that I truly understand the nature of who I've become.
Now I go by the call sign Tango. Military slang for target, enemy. Rather appropriate I must admit. There's also the comparison of a duel between two pilots being almost like a dance, with steps and a rhythm.
It is at this point that a realization has come upon me, one that I have tried to deny before but can do so no longer.
I'm really enjoying this. I like being a Mercenary. I love the money I'm making. I love the satisfaction of destroying a skilled pilot, knowing that I will be showered with the riches that come with great skill in this profession.
It is time I sat down and reflected on the events of today and the past few days. It is of course not everyday that someone gets the opportunity to live a new life. It would be foolish to waste such a grand opportunity and I have taken steps to ensure that my future is secure.
Even now in this short time that I've been in this profession, I have amassed a small fortune and that's not counting any rewards I'll make when I put these claims through the Bounty Boards. Truly, I have never realized just how much a skilled Mercenary can make in this warzone we call Sirius. I am very please. Very pleased indeed.
It is a very different experience coming face to face with the ones you once called mortal enemies, even stranger still is having a conversation with them. After having downed two of her pilots, Fleet Admiral Rachel Baker attempted to get me to convert to the lawful side of Liberty. Be one of their Mercenaries. I explained things to her, I wasn't scared of repercussions at that point. I told her I used to pilot one of the U-Boats. We ended up having a conversation about battle tactics and I believe I may have just given the Fleet Admiral a most terrible idea. A Libertonian version of the U-Korps to be used to cripple the Gallics supply lines and starve their fleet.
How ironic then that the very next day I was hired by the Gallics to assist them against the Liberty Navy in Magellan. They paid decently enough I suppose given that I only assisted them against capital ships. Nothing spectacular but nothing particularly challenging either. They did seem impressed with my performance and expressed interest in hiring me in the future to become one of their Mercenaries. I suppose I'll take them up on their offer. Work is work after all, and it can help fill in the time if it's a slow day.
As I write this I'm also preparing to submit my claims to the various applicable Bounty Boards.
It has often be said that good deeds do not go unrewarded. I must admit even though this sounds particularly foolish, especially in this profession, it still rings true. It really is incredible just how valuable one persons destruction can be when they've bothered the wrong people. Even more incredible is how much value that kill has when you managed to save someones life.
Twenty Five Million. That's how much I've made from the destruction of one ship. A fellow Mercenary, much like myself though he tends to have a preference to go after the lower-hanging fruit so to speak. It turns out that he severely annoyed someone who was willing to pay a serious amount of Credits for his destruction. Ten Million.
For that sum, how could I resist taking on another Mercenary. Perhaps it would have been a challenge if he fought more than he ran. Regardless, he managed to cloak and I thought he had escaped but he in his greed saw a target he considered easy. I managed to catch up to him and I destroyed his ship, saving the target. Immediately I received ten million from the employer who hired me. Then I received two million for the person I saved. Then another two million from a friend of his. Later on I received a Million from an unknown person who seemed pleased I had saved him.
To top it all of, I was awarded an additional ten million simply for making a vague warning on the bounty of the person I saved.
Twenty Five Million.
All for doing the right thing. If only opportunities like that came along more often, I'd retire a very rich and very popular man.