Discovery Gaming Community

Intro:


William George walked into the landing bay area of Freeport 4 with a look of concern upon his face. He quickly surveyed the area before hastily walking towards a slightly damaged Rhino freighter.

"There's good old Vincent!" he said to the man, apparently Vincent, examining the ship.

"Hackers, Rogues, and Xenos. What a trip!" Vincent said.

"I take it everyone managed to get out safely, despite the attacks?" William asked.

"Of course, I'm not too shabby of a pilot myself, I'll have you know. Even if you're the one having the adventurous life." Vincent kicked the freighter. "It's just this ship handles like, well, its namesake."

"True, true, I'm sorry. I'm just a bit worried is all. And the adventurous life isn't all it's cracked out to be. I wouldn't mind working a simple mining operation again." William said.

"So what are you up to exactly, Will? From the types I've noticed looking for you lately, I'd say you were up to no good."

William paused and shook his head. "Those things are in the past, I'm working for a noble cause now. If only I had been smarter in my youth perhaps things would be easier now."

Vincent nodded. "We all make mistakes, but life goes on. You just have to make up for it now. For instance, you could buy me a new ship. That would go a long way."

William chuckled. "I'll see what I can do. At the least, I'll put you in contact with some people who might be able to help. So, where are the others?"

"They are already in some quarters we found, waiting for your arrival. Everyone except for Michael that is." Vincent said as they began to walk out of the ship area.

William was silent a moment before pausing and looking toward his brother. "Where is he?"

"Don't worry!" Vincent said, putting his hand on William's shoulder. "He got a job as a pilot with some Kusari ship. It's with Samura I think."

"Samura? That's pretty strange. I didn't think they hired many Libertonians?" William asked.

"You're telling me! I really have no idea; I am just relaying the info. You should talk to him sometime and find out what's going on." Vincent said. William nodded.

After a few more minutes spent walking the station, Vincent asked his brother, "So what is this noble cause you were talking about?"

"Ah, yes," William said. "You see, I'm working to save Planet Gaia."

"Planet Gaia?" Vincent said. "Never heard of it."

"It's in Bretonia," William replied.

"Oh. How did you get involved in a noble cause in Bretonia? You used to be more the type interested in monetary causes in Liberty." Vincent asked.

"It's a long story..."

I

It started, oh, five years ago now? No, it was a bit more because I remember hearing all about Powell's presidency at the time. That's right. It's hard to even remember the past few years anymore, but I distinctly recall that. I remember you and Michael arguing about him, and mom had to break up the fight. That was before she *sigh* you know, passed away.

*Pause*

But as I was saying. A few years before that *gulp* time, things weren't the greatest in Colorado and I went seeking another job. I did eventually find one working for Deep Space Engineering. Mind you, I was just the junior pilot of an escort ship, but the pay was adequate and the experience was great. I stayed at that job and moved up to full escort pilot after some time, and I continued to learn about the art of flight.

At the time it seemed like a great thrill to fly through space. We made a lot of runs from Pueblo Station delivering tradelane parts to various parts of Liberty and occasionally Kusari. I recall my first time visiting Planet New Tokyo – ah what a time! We had flown to Roppongi, but the transport ship was having some issues due to a Xeno ambush. It was nothing big, but it was going to take a few days to get everything fixed up so I headed planetside with a few coworkers. The Tokyoites were just as I had heard and not overly friendly towards us foreigners, but a lot of places only paid attention to the credits. It was my first time on an outside planet, and I will always recall it.

But as I was saying, this continued up until that incident with mom. As you'll recall when that happened, I took things a bit... hard. I really needed to get away and think about things. My dad was working on Freeport 4 at the time, so I resigned from DSE and moved out there to do some mining.

The IMG were great, even if my mining abilities weren't quite up to par. They were hospitable and I felt connected again. But, as I said, I wasn't much of a miner, but I was a decent pilot so I worked on a lot of shipping to and from Freeport 4. One particular run took me to Trafalgar in New London (those Junkers are great at getting a hold of hard to get items, after all, and fresh Kyushu produce was always a favorite, if expensive).

This one visit was different though. You see, some Mollys had damaged my transport down by the Hood (I guess I shouldn't have taunted them.) so I needed extensive repairs. Well, you know how Junkers can be – I was there a week. They did good work though, I must say. In any case, that was not the important part of my stay. You see, I met someone. Someone wonderful.

II

You know that person who sends your mind spinning? The thought of whom you cannot shake from your thoughts? She was the one.

Her name was Catalina. Such a wonderful name; It still makes me smile to this day. She was originally from Crete, from what I understand. But when I met her, she had fallen under the spell of cardamine and was, hmmm, a bit estranged from her kin. She was at Trafalgar getting away from her past, much like I was at the time. We hit it off pretty quickly and all was well.

Of course, I had to return to the Freeport as soon as the ship was repaired. It was a sad time, with me thinking I'd never see her again. But fate seemed to be on my side. You see, soon after I was hired by some fellows on Planet Curacao to escort passengers back to New London. It was a great time as it both paid well and could be worked into my usual shipping. And, of course, it put me right into the New London system. I flew faster that first month than I ever had before. Since I had an allotted amount of time to make the shipments, if I finished earlier, I had free time to spend on Trafalgar.

That lasted a little while, and was a great few months. But there were opportunities in the Taus and my father, along with several other miners, including the one employing me, headed off to parts unknown to a little station called Java in the Tau 23 system. This was a bit of a problem as it kind of cut off my employment, but with the help of my beloved, I find a new job of sorts.

See? She was wonderful. Not only did she have the most beautiful eyes I had ever laid mine upon, she had hair as bright as Omega 41's star; That is to say, it was not at all light. You see, that's a neutron star and doesn't really do much in the light emission department, whereas she had very dark hair. Err, anyway, I digress.

As I had been saying, her eyes were beautiful – as radiant as the giant star burning in the heart of the New Berlin system. As bright as her hair wasn't!

But that's not the half of it. She was a great pilot, as well. Those Corsairs always seem to be. She could fly circles around me in space. And believe me when I say there wasn't a day I didn't mind her flying around my ship, if you know what I mean.

But as I was saying, I found a new job of sorts. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the sort of job you'd write home to tell your mother about. Assuming she wasn't dead in the first place. *Pause* See? I have learned to deal with death? Where was I? Oh yes, how things changed around.

I probably should keep this under my hat, what with her being a Corsair and all, but she was into the Cardamine. That's why she was trying to lose herself – her people don't care much for such things. Of course, I don't either, but you'd be surprised the kind of money you can pull down shipping contraband. Of course, moving that stuff on its own is tricky, so I found some cover. I was familiar with the Independent Worlds, so I got a job transporting people from Cambridge to Curacao. Talk about a nice place, that Planet Curacao.

My route took me from Cambridge to Curacao, where I dropped off those I was shuttling for McKay Luxury Transports. After that I took a short cut I learned and went back to Magellan and dropped off a shipment with the Lane Hackers, to this woman named Eskaluur. Talk about a strange name, eh? But I couldn't care less – I just wanted the credits. From there I hopped back to Curacao and picked up a return group for New London, which of course put me right back by Trafalgar, where I restocked the cardi and met with her. You can guess which part was my favorite.

This kept up for a while until, well, I ran into some problems. Both in romance and professionally. I would've preferred neither.