Divided Loyalties

[aster]

Having been born and raised on a long distance Bowex Transport there was really only ever going to be one skill that Benjamin and Sebastian Aster excelled at. Sebastian by 30 minutes the elder, was always the more skillful (and most would say the more impulsive) pilot. So much so that they graduated from flight school as top and bottom of the same class. So whilst offers were thin on the ground for Benjamin, Sebastian was head hunted by several large corporations. Partly because of the prestige (but mainly because of the money), Sebastian chose to leave Bretonia and join Ageira in their gun manufacturing division on Detroit.

Benjamin took small jobs flying courier for Bowex to clock up more flight hours and set his heart on trying to join the military. Meanwhile Sebastian settled into a lavish lifestyle on Manhatten and raked in the money, earning more on one tour of duty at Detroit than Benjamin could earn in a lifetime. Time passed and Sebastian married a beautiful successful pharmacist, Emma Stroud, who worked for Cryer Pharmaceuticals. On the day that Benjamin failed his QCR entrance examine for the third time. Sebastian and Emma had their first child, life was good and in fact nearly perfect.

Benjamin was not disheartened and filled in the all too familiar application form for the fourth time. He was determined never to turn away from his dream, even though his father repeatedly told him that he didnt have it in him.

At the seventh time of asking (more unsuccessful attempts than any other candidate in BAF history), Benjamin Aster was accepted as ensign into the QCR. Whether the examiners were convinced of his skill, or were impressed by his perseverance, or simply fed up of seeing his face in the examination rooms will never be known.

However as things looked up for Benjamin, they plummeted for Sebastian. Ageira is a large corporation. Mistakes are made and when mistakes happen someone needs to take the fall. The Supreme Debilitator programme had cost billions of credits. However the energy transfer system was unstable, resulting in the gun exploding with devastating effect when it over heated. Sebastian warned everyone within the corporation about the problem, but there was too much prestige and money tied to the products success. Sebastian couldnt stand that company was going ahead with the development of a potentially fatally flawed product.

He arranged to speak to a media correspondent for Libertys prime news channel on Manhatten, when he returned from picking his wife and young son up from the Cryer Research station where she worked. However, he never got to keep the appointment. Someone had tipped an interested party off about Sebastian going public and decided that they could not allow for the disclosure about the flawed programme to take place.

The shuttle Sebastian used to pick up his family had been fitted with mines, primed to detonate when he entered cruise. No one knows how Sebastian survived the blast, least of all him. He awoke on the junkers station of Rochester, scarred beyond recognition, both inside and out.

He realised what had happened and why. His anger welled up inside him and he vowed for revenge against his previous employers. No longer capable of working in a team he chose the lone path. An independent pilot, however he was tipped off about the Mactan base and soon made it his home, amongst others with the same hatred of Ageira. Whilst not a Hacker in the traditional mould he flys a Slipstream with their id and iff. He is not interested in Hacker politics, nor is he a pirate in the traditional sense and will only attack Ageira shipping. He will defend other hackers and sees their cause as being his.

On his first tour towards the troublesome Magellan jumphole in Leeds [QCR]Benjamin.Aster was set upon by hackers. The battle was over almost before it had begun. The hacker pilots were more skilled and more numerous. Cracks were developing on his Hussars screen One more hit and he would be vented out into space. Just as he was sure his time was at an end a strange thing happened. The hackers turned and fled back through the jumphole. With the exception of a single Slipstream. Over the comm channel Benjamin heard his brothers voice for what would be the last time. We are on different side now we have chosen our paths should they cross again, it will not matter that you are my brother.

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