It is a pleasure to meet you all. My background is unfortunately grim, my parents were most likely Zoners who fell victim to Corsair opression on Freeport 9. After they were murdered I was forced to raise myself and although it was painful I had no choice but to become one of captors. I am very passionate about the drive technology and all manner of space craft and I slowly garnered their trust, until I was allowed to join them on patrol mission in Omicron Theta.
On my third patrol mission, the squadron I was a part of spotted a Zoner Convoy travelling from Planet Pygar to the Sigma-17 Jump Hole. They refused to engage and we pursued, once we entered Orinoco Cloud their fighter escorts turned around in a heroic effort to save the convoy transports. They were outnumbered but once our formation closed, I cut my engines and released a volley of javelins in the rear of my squadron, half of them did not even have time to react from the concussion before they were cut down by Swatter mines. The Zoners immediately understood the situation and we made short work of those bastards. The shock in the flight leader's voice when he saw his wingman explode before even making contact, the anger, and then the fear, and the pleading.
After the battle I immediately surrendered and was taken to planet Pygar where after a lengthy interrogation, I was approached by a Colonel of the Zoner Militant organization. He was sympathetic to my plight and impressed with my grit and after a few days of discussions, I formally adopted an Militant IFF and traded that hideous Gladiator for my first ship, the trade vessel MacarenaruL. After a few months, I was forced to change IFF and ship as well due to my ... libertarian approach to commerce.
Being a firm believer in freedom and inviduality as fundamental values of our species I made quite a few enemies among the House Authorities and Corporations whose overly protectionist and sometimes despotic attitude clashed with my own beliefs and in truth, direct practices. I am still grateful to the GNI operative I met while flying the MacarenaruL, He was sympathetic to my philosophy but in the end ... the law is the law. I lost some cargo but in the end, gained a friend. After this event I even dropped my affiliation the Militant faction and joined the Zoners under the IFF Kalisto and have been doing independent humanitarian supply runs to the Order and Zoner bases in the far fringes of the Omicrons where the only important conflict in the Sirius system is being fought, the war against the Nomads and their thralls.
And that's the gist of who I am and what I believe in. I will always help out anyone I am ideologically aligned with and will oppose anyone with whom I am not (sometimes to the detriment of my reputation within the Zoner community). I oppose all Royalists (Gallic Royalists, GC) or Communists (be they Bundschuh, Sirian Coaltiion) although I admit I maintain a tedious relationship with the Red Hessians due to their near monopoly on the Hessian Tears trade.
Oh and I will use this opportunity to hail an indepenent ALG captain I met recently on one of my supply runs to Carthage. I thank you once more sir for your assistance but I must say, I am glad I unloaded the cargo before going to the bar to toast a glass in your name. An Order Battlecruiser was docked for repair and almost the entire crew was in the bar ... After serving out some of the ... special Burgundy stock I had kept for such occasions, things turned somewhat to a blur, all I know is that the next morning I awoke aboard the Kalisto the ship being unmoored and stationary near the Fort. Two messages on the Neural Net, the first was from the bartender, I am temporarily banned from interacting with other patrons (he came around quite quickly once he saw the attacked credit chip to the reply) and the second was from the XO of the Battlecruiser whom I had met earlier in the evening. He gave his thanks for the morale boost brought to the men and women of the base, until the Battlecruiser finished repairs and had moved onto it's patrol assingment, aparrently the CO of the vessel had been less than impressed with the previous night's proceedings and I was forbidden to come within less than 15K of the battlegroup or I would be used as a mobile target to calibrate the light turrets.
I have lost little sleep over this and I am sure all the rookies that will arrive in Carthage will enjoy hearing the tale from the aces and vets.
