The Vahl family was a simple one; a father, a mother, a child, living on the cold planet of New Berlin. Mr. Frederick Vahl was a software engineer, and not a very good one. His days at the plant started dully, and ended just the same. Mrs. Anya Vahl had no real skills. Growing up in an underclass family of her own, and never having the resources to pursue advanced schooling, she spent her days in the small box of a home that they found makeshift solace in.
Then there was Griff, an uninspired child if there ever was one. Everyday was the same: get up, go to the dingy school that was all he could be afforded to attend, come home, and start the doldrums cycle all over again. He spent his time reading, to put himself in the shoes of ones with better lives, but as soon as his rendezvous with fantasy drew too powerful, down the book would go, and out the lights. Dreaming only made you feel worse, Griff thought. So he would resume his meager existence, forgetting what could be, and living what was.
Then, hope sparked forth. Not a bright one, but a spark nonetheless. A new life, his parents told him. Better money, better schooling, and a better home. He tried not to get his hopes up, this circumstance had shown itself before, and it died all the same. Life on a space station was something that made Griff's imagination turn, however. It didn’t do that very often. Frederick had been offered a job on Aomori Station; a Gas Miner’s Guild base in the Honshu system. It was an offer simply unheard of, his father explained that day. The Miners had a severe intolerance to Rheinlanders, Griff had learned in school. The centuries old treaty seemed useless to him, but it never crossed his mind apart from a passing thought; now though, it intrigued him that his father had been accepted to work for this prejudiced group of individuals. Apparently, Frederick had been pleading for passage to their space for awhile now. Griff didn’t bother himself with his father’s endeavors; they never amounted to anything. The GMG, however, finally caved to his efforts. The job was open, and they needed a worker. Overlooking his origins, an ALG waste transport was arranged to ferry the Vahls into Kusarian space. How the Rheinlander family would be treated in their new environs was something that was yet to be experienced.
Frederick had been applying to many jobs over the years. Everyday he would return home with a look of quiet realization, and acceptance of his rejections. Father’s skills were humble, and not necessary to the changing world around him. That’s why Griff didn’t get his hopes up with this latest opportunity. Nothing ever came of these situations. Dreaming was dangerous, and so was hope. So he continued his ordinary life, although with a small fire, smoldering deep down somewhere. There was no way to kill hope completely. Not in one so young.
Then the transport came. It was as simple as that. They packed, they went to the boarding area, and they set off for the Aomori. Life was different. The GMG had schools in place for the workers’ offspring, and were much better equipped to teach than at Griff’s former tutelage. The new material was far different from schooling on New Berlin. The textbooks weren’t eaten away by insects, the seats were made of padding that didn’t make your back ache by day’s end, and the teachers had life in their eyes, as did the students. It took at least a week to sink in: this was a new life; a better one.
Years passed. Griff grew into a young man, and finished his schooling under the Guild’s methods. He was young, confident, and had a fire in his eyes that he never had dreamed was possible for him to obtain. Then Frederick was gone. A research project into an Omicron system, and his father was killed by Outcast forces. It was heartbreaking. Father, who had always done all in his power to keep his family prosperous and alive, was robbed of existence. Soon after, Anya left. There was nothing more for her with the Miners. No, of course there was: her son; but that didn’t stop her from moving on. Griff didn’t blame her, she moved on. He needed to do the same, and he did.
From then on, Griff signed on to be an escort pilot for the Guild. His no worries residence on the Aomori had come to an end, and it was time to take control of his own life. The rest is history. He was a smart individual. He had lived in bitter and cold, as well as relative ease. He adapted, he learned, he made his own story.
It has been years since the history of the Guild Master has come to pass. Quite simply, Griff Vahl proved himself within the faction’s ranks. He worked good, and he worked hard. He had seen prejudice against his origins, but no more. No one hassled Vahl for being a Rheinlander, and no one had reason to. He had earned his position like anyone else; by perseverance and effort.
[color=#336666][font=Book Antiqua]For the Guild,
Griff Vahl