I was born on Leeds 21 year ago, to an immigrant mother who came from the borderworlds on a freighter full of immigrants looking for a better life for her unborn child, me. I was born 21 years ago, before all of the invasion and madness in Bretonia, mom never spoke too much about my father, only thing I know is that he was a Corsair and that they were living in one of the Corsair systems.
Anyway, where did I stop... Oh yeah, Leeds, I didn't find any friends during my education both in elementary and highschool, to most I was a social outcast, that got bullied whenever he could be, I never had any balls to fight off the bullies or stand up for myself, I am a weak character I admit... Yet when I finished my education I despised the society we live in, my options were not attractive at all, we didn't have any money for me to get a degree so mostly my options were limited to low paying physical jobs, I refused to break my back for a shitty job for the rest of my life like my poor mother did every day to make ends meet. I did do some part time jobs to afford me a computer, after that I started self educating myself for 2 and a half years in computer programming, I learned hungry for knowledge, internet was also the beginning of my new life.
I met with a person online, supposedly a member of the lane hackers, after seeing my skills and what can I do with software he told me that they are looking for people of my calibre and asked me if I would like to join the Lane Hackers, I agreed, mostly because of the money and less due to my ethical codex, I told my mother where I was going and what I will be doing, she didn't take it lightly, but lets be honest... She really didn't have any choice. I met up with a very pleasant man who agreed to meet with me on Leeds at a certain pub, we both took off in his spaceship and that was my first encounter with outer space. I was amazed and in awe when I first saw it, he led me to a certain Lane Hacker base and... Well the rest is history, I started working illegaly as a Hacker and a hacker, I think I've said enough here.
"You came?" said the man, "Yes, I'm sorry I'm late, hopefully we can discuss bussines." I said and sat down at the table ordering myself a beer. "Mr Cruz, we are much interested in your computing skills, and would like to use them to our interests.", as he spoke his hand gently pushed me a sheet of paper, "A contract, in which everything is detaily explained to you, and the terms of our agreement.".
This all looked too good to be true, as I was skimming trough the pages, it stood in the contract that I could never be prosecuted for anything illegal ( in theory ) and that my monthly pay would be around 50,000 Credits. It sounded too good to be true, and you know what... it probably was, but I didn't care, all I cared about is a decent job, and this was more than decent for myself, I happily took the contract and signed it, "Welcome to the team Mr. Cruz", he said with a smile.
My career with the Lane Hackers was... Successful and fruitful to say the least, I quit, maybe quit isn't the right word, I left when I heard about the Gallic invading Leeds, as soon as I could, bought a small speedship from one of the Lane Hacker bases and departed for Leeds.
Entering Leeds what I saw was... instant chaos, freelancers, Brets, and Gauls colliding into one big explosive clusterfuck. I hit my cruise engines ASAP, but then a huge hit, it shook me so hard I almost broke my teeth, and I saw what it was, a GRN ship right on my ass. I never felt closer to death in my life, immediately starting evasive maneuvers, I was more agile than the VHF, hopefully, but I didn't know for how long could I keep it up, my lack of experience was getting to me, and then, a series of shots, but not directed at me but at the Gallic who was shooting at me. This was my chance, immediately engaging cruise engines I went straight for Leeds. All I could think about was my mom, and that she makes it out of this war torn system.
While people were mass leaving the planet, I was going in, I quickly landed right on the roof of our building and hurried down to our apartment. "Mom! Mom!! Mom where a--.., oh there you are thank god, let's go.". She turned around to me with a confused look on her face. "Cruz? What are you doing here? What is going on? They said on the news that the Gal-..", I grabbed her hand hastily, "There's no time to explain, we have to GO right NOW!", we both sprinted up the stairs to the roof and into my spaceship. "But Cruz all of my stuff... my documents and my money is in there." she said as I fired up the engines, "We have plenty of credits, don't worry for a second. Priority is getting the hell out of here right now!". I got to the docking ring and we exited Leeds, "Where are we going?" she said. "Somewhere safer, a Freeport would be our best option right now." I replied as I flew trough the nebula to a very well hidden jumphole that would take us towards Liberty systems.