"...uh, so, I must do this. I will be either accepted or dumped to space in a small urn. All my ancestors went through this. So I must do the same". Artem Stukov, a 22 years old man, was standing right before bar door on planet Gran Canaria, hesitating for a moment. USSR, Russian Federation, Eurasian Union, Coalition of Sol... these almost millenium old names were floating in his mind.
All of his family's past was bound with the socialism and all Sirius Coalition predecessors, starting from USSR, until the Sleeper Ships exodus. Almost all men in his family - a whole dynasty, in fact - were employees of Coalition-predecessors intelligence agencies: NKVD, KGB, FSB... well, y'know these. His forefather, Arkadiy Stukov (under false name of Mattew Stoner) had infiltrated the last bastion of imperialism, the Liberty sleeper ship together with a few more agents. After the Liberty settlement, the Stukov-Stoner family had to lay low for a long time, evading Liberty authorities' sticky noses and ubiquitous mousetraps laid for any possible spies. When the spy-hunt in ex-Alliance Houses had calmed down, Stukovs reestablished link with resurgent Coalition, quietly supplying it with valuable information about Liberty's technology advancements, expansion, known navy forces and their locations, acting in a role they were accustomed to - according to an ancient Coalition proverb, "there's no such thing as a former KGB man", so, they continued their work as agents, like most other Coalition personnel who managed to slip in the Alliance sleeper ships and who couldn't move to Omega-52 by some reasons. In their case, it was an understanding of the fact that they were much more useful for the Coalition as spies within Liberty, rather than working as a simple laborers within Coalition itself.
Artem Stukov was born in 800 A.S. on Planet Manhattan. When he was 7, all his family moved to Bethlehem Station in Pennsylvania. Although a space station may be unappropriate place to raise children, it was a great time for him, even despite his father, Andrey Stukov, arranged a difficult and complex system of home education for him, including extensive History course. In the childhood, Artem couldn't fully understand why he had to study the Old Earth history so hard, especially the history of late 19th - early 21st centuries. But later that appeared as an ideological basis: his father wanted to put in him not just some blurred ideals of Revolution, but full understanding of for what and why the Coalition members are fighting against ex-Alliance forces, why the Revolution is necessary and why they can't just softly reform the Houses to make them more socialistic. Unfortunately, one important thing that the education system didn't cover was fighter piloting, especially dogfight practics.
But circa 820 the real problems started. Liberty so-called 'law enforcers' started a full-scale counterintelligence campaign. To make things worse, many 'well-wishers' were involved into this, informing on their neighbors for a small reward. Eventually, Stukovs were presented with a choice: to escape to Omega-52 or to stay in Liberty and to continue doing their duty as intelligence agents of Coalition under heavy risk of being caught. They chose to stay. So, in order to shut excessively curious eyes looking for hidden socialists in Liberty's society (what a bitter word-play), Stukovs had to bribe all of those eyes' owners (in direct and indirect forms, like giving some expensive 'gifts'), then make some serious contacts with serious people both in government and other powerful structures of Liberty (which, by the way, would not only offer additional protection from LSF interest, but would also serve as a valuable source of information for the Coalition). That required a lot of money, and not for once, so, after all, that required a stable and big income.
Stukovs founded a small company named Stoner & Co. that specializes in small mining operations throughout Liberty systems, especially extracting helium in Pennsylvania, which proved to be a relatively safe, profitable and reliable source of money: though they had to start with a civilian Stargazer, quickly replaced with Sunburst, now they have a fully equipped Hegemon, piloted by Artem. That provided seemingly the best cover: hey, how a big, fat freelancer transport, obeying all laws of space traffic regulation rules and shooting rocks in nearby asteroid field may be a Coalition spy ship? Even children in Liberty know: a commie is an always drunk bear in ushanka with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a control stick of some dark, slender and creepy spacecraft in another, who doesn't care about any piloting rules and initiates docking with jump gates on cruise speed within few meters from it's "flaps" only a half-second before crashing into them.
Earned bucks, except a certain amount spent on food, fees&bills, life support supplies, repairs, countless bribes and all that expenditures accompanying life and business in the heart of wild capitalism, are used to finance operations of Coalition, Mollys, Red Hessians and other sympathizers of Revolution through a big net of fake accounts in many Liberty and Bretonia banks and credit card transporting.
But even though Artem had to make 'career' as a miner ship pilot in order to ensure his family survival, Artem never lost track of his goal: to make a feasible contribution to creation of society of equality, peace and freedom - not for that 'artifical filler' (with which Artem was fed up) like any place-name-of-House-here freedom, as false compared to real freedom as Synth Paste compared to natural, home-grown food. In fact, he sometimes dreamed of something similar to what was depicted in Ivan Yefremov's novel 'Andromeda'. Despite all that pathos, he had no illusions (oh well, almost no illusions) about his possibilities to make this real or even to make a small step in that direction if he would choose to act on his own.
What he can do alone? Destroy Houses' police, navy and corporate ships? That will not even scratch the Houses' dictatorship, but will turn him into a banal pirate. Join some group fighting against Houses, like Mollys or Hessians? Okay, maybe at some time they will overthrow the Houses, but what they will bring instead of corporatocracy? Anarchy? Democracy? Socialism? Will they be able to hold the power and to keep the political system which they will bring? Will they be able to deal with those who don't want to live by new rules, with all those criminals? After some personal contacts with Mollys and RH members, Artem understood one simple thing: despite their ideals, both of them can't build or, especially, keep a state. Even if they will try to build something like a political system, it will quickly sink in chaos. Only one power in Sirius seemed to both seeking the communistic ideals and being seemingly able to build a strong and stable state: the Sirius Coalition. Although it's internal structure was far from being perfect, it was no less far ahead of all Houses on the road to perfect state, and that's why Artem is seeking to join SCRA - same ideology, same roots, same goals.
"The Coalition was my family's past, and it may become my own future. If the Coalition will find something suitable for it's needs in such an useless scrap like me, of course", he mumbled to himself. Finally, Artem pushed the door and stepped in the bar, looking for a Commissar.
// OOC: Sorry for my terrible English, I'm from Russia.
