I sat there, chewing on the blade of grass in the alleyway next to the bounty hunter club on Manhattan. I watched as people came and went. Back and forth, putting out contracts on my brothers in arms. I muttered under my breath, "What makes you so self righteous." The Bounty Hunters Guild made me sick. For ages they hunted us down, killed us. All for money, all for fun.
I was born in space, aboard a lone "Mule" bound for Magellan. They were going to set up a new base for the rogues; my father was an engineer. He was going to help build us a new home, me and my mother. I was only 3 years old, barely old enough to hold my own pistol. When the Hunters closed in, the walls and lights of the ship flickering and exploding, I had smiled. The sparks were beautiful to a three year old with no common sense. My mother told me to grab my gun, which I did. I held it awkwardly with both small hands. She said we needed to leave and that I was getting on a life-pod. I screamed at her, telling her no, asking what was happening. She said that it was just time to leave and if I didn't do as she said she was going to beat my hide.
We rounded the corner to the life-pods, only to find that there were so many cowards trying to run away from the cataclysmic events of the evening. Over the com system the captain said that the Hunters were beginning to board. My father approached us through the chaos and told my mother that they were already in the hold, on their way up to us. My mother nodded and handed me over to my father. I looked at his gun it was old and worn, ready to give up on him. My mother took it from him and took off down the hallway we had just come from. My father sat me down in the pod and started putting in a destination on the computer. I asked him what was happening, he looked at me angrily before going back to his typing. A man appeared behind him, his head was bloody. He told my father to launch the pod, that if he didn't I'd be lost like them. I started to cry and my father slapped me upside the head. He told me I wasn't allowed to cry, that if I did then I was already lost. I nodded and gripped my pistol tighter.
Suddenly, blasts came from down the hall, the man behind my father crumpled to the floor. Dad told me to stay where I was and not to poke my head out. He ran towards the blasts, I saw more and then my father flying backwards. A man stood in front of my pod, confirming their deaths. He turned around and looked at me. He raised his gun and aimed at me, I aimed at him. I pulled the trigger, hitting him in the face. The pure force of the kick on the pistol caused it to bounce up, hitting the launch button on the ceiling.
I was thrown out into space with no destination keyed in. I drifted for a couple days before ending up near California Minor. The mooring port was full of traders offloading their goods. I watched as my pod floated toward one, its cargo doors ajar, dumping trash and refuse. Somehow, by some miracle I bounced off a large piece of trash and down into the ship. Eventually the trader made its way to Manhattan, where his cargo was unloaded. I ran quick, away from the landing pad and away from the trader.
I grew up there on the streets of Manhattan. Stealing what I needed to eat. Once, I even killed an old man so I could take his apartment. I lived there for a few weeks, eventually dumping his body in a nearby sewer. It was great until the police finally wiped their doughnut covered chins and came searching for the man. I was nowhere to be found, however. From then on, the streets were my home, bouncing around, stealing whatever wasn't bolted down. I even found a new pistol, just waiting for me.
Its now 818, 19 years have passed and I'm sitting in an alleyway, reminded of how I made it here, staring down the face of the very people who sent me here.
A man walks out, wearing the badge of a Bounty Hunter. Scarring around his mouth and cheek. He was oddly familiar and just as quickly as I noticed him, my mind raced back to that night. This was the man I had shot, and after so many years of growing up on my own, surviving on my own and killing on my own, this man appears as a sign from space herself.
I left the alleyway and followed him for several blocks. He stopped at a shipyard and spoke with a man who pointed at a junked out Combat Service Vehicle. I looked at the ship for a second, then the two men. The Hunter handed the man a credits chit and walked off towards the ship. I followed, stopping only a second to grab the credit chit from the man and slash his throat with the homemade shiv I carried around in my pocket. I returned the shiv to my pocket and put my hand on the grip of my pistol.
The Hunter opened the cockpit of his new ship and took a look inside. I approached him from the back as he threw cans and empty synth tubes to the ground. "Excuse me sir.", I said as I approached, holding up his credit chit. "I think you dropped this back there." The man stood and turned around to look to the credit chit. He gave me a confused look then saw the crumpled salesman a few feet behind me. He drew quick, but not fast enough. In the seconds it took him to take aim, I blasted him in the knees and both wrists, his gun falling to the ground and he to his knees.
I laughed heartily as the man groaned and flailed. A swift kick to his ribs caused him to fall and roll to his back. I looked at him, grinning from ear to ear. "You may not remember me." I said as I pointed to his face with the barrel of my pistol,"But I gave you that."
The Hunter groaned and gave me a dirty look. "A filthy rogue's gonna end me." He said, choking on his own blood.
I cocked my head and laughed at him, kicking him again in the ribs. "Well it would appear so. If not me, someone else." I stared down at him, my laughter ceased. "You killed a lot of us that day. You killed my parents, my father. This is true justice, not what you fools do for kicks and credits." I held my gun up, took aim at the mans forehead. He looked at me with such hatred, tears filling his eyes. "YOU are the monster here." I said, just before pulling the trigger, grey matter filling the landing zone.
I looked around, several people were stopped in the street, staring at me. I raised my arms in the air and roared a loud, powerful roar. The people scattered quickly, the sounds of sirens approaching quickly filled the air. It was time to leave.
I jumped into the CSV, fired it up and took off as quick as I could. The Liberty police chased me for hours around New York. Space was where I was born, it was where I belonged and I'd be damned if some planet-born doughnut over-fed fools were going to take me down. I quickly cruised through the hostile trade-lane to Newark, the bases turrets already on high alert and blasting at me. I dodged flawlessly, making my way to the trade-lane, I docked and quickly used the jumpgate on the other side. I had made it to California, now to find a safe haven.
Rogue territory stretched out around me as I made my way through the asteroid field. I was safe at last, now maybe I could find some work. Perhaps Alcatraz would offer higher hopes and allow me my true goal. To finally be a true Rogue and live in my birthplace, the stars.
