Santigo Alvarez was born as Santigo Torrez on Planet Houston where he was raised learning to farm corn and raise cattle on that arid rocky planet.
His parents names where Domingo and Antonia Torrez. Domingo was a true son of Malta and had come to the Texas system to help establish a cardamine smuggling operation. While trying to establish a cover as a farmer he met Antonia and was smitten. They married a short time later and soon Santigo was born.
At first there was some worry about whether Santigos mixed heritage may cause him cardamine withdrawals if he was not exposed to the elements from Domingos home world, but their worry was for naught. It soon became apparent that the boy suffered no such curse and he could breathe freely of the Houston air without the need of additional elements.
After each harvest Domingo would take that years crop to market. The trip would take several weeks. This was of course a front for him to make the long trip back to Malta once a year for his health. Though Antonia knew the truth, they kept Domingos origins a secret from their son.
Even though Santigo was ignorant of his origins his father often told him of the history of the sons of the Hispania.
He told him of the damaged sleeper ship and the faction split that occurred when the wounded ship reached a barely hospitable world nearly 800 years past. He told him of some who chose to forsake their brothers from Sol to seek refuge on that first planet even though it could not sustain the entire population. They forcibly took what they wanted and boarded the lifeboats and all but one of the great sleeper ships shuttles. Then they abandoned their brethren to the winds of fate.
Those who were left aboard felt a great resentment for those who had abandoned them, and some wanted to take the remaining shuttle down and, by force, retrieve what had been taken from them.
He told him of the great leader who gathered those remaining outcasts and convinced them to save the shuttles fuel, and trust to the fates that the Hispania would carry the refugees to a more hospitable planet. That leaders name had been Santigo Miguel Alvarez, and the young Torrez had been given his first name to honor this great leader of the past.
The ship continued on and had nearly run out of fuel when it came into the vicinity of a habitable planet. The calculations were made and a final burn of the huge engines put the Hispania into a high though unstable orbit around the planet. The people named it the planet Malta in hopes that it would be their island of refuge. The shuttle was used to ferry every man, woman, and child with everything they had left to the planets surface. Had they not saved the fuel many would have been lost.
The going was hard, and it took several generations before the outcasts colony finally had a solid foothold, but eventually it did and its people are people of honor.
As Santigo aged his father told him more and more about the Alvarez family history. He told him that the Alvarez were a proud family, rich in their heritage and their accomplishments. All of this was leading to the day that Domingo would reveal the truth to Santigo. That he was one of the outcasts and that he was of the Alvarez line.
On Santigos fifteenth birthday Domingo revealed the truth to his son and took him to Planet Malta where he was introduced to his uncle, Ferdinand.
Ferdinand ran one of the largest cardamine farms on Malta, but he was well on in years and he had no sons to teach his business to. Domingo returned to Houston, but Santigo was left behind in Ferdinands care to learn about growing, harvesting, and processing the Cardamine grass of Planet Malta. Santigo learned quickly and was soon given his own fields and assigned workers to run it as he saw fit.
Several growing seasons passed and Santigo made many changes in how the fields were handled. The cardamine grasses flourished in his fields and he made large profits even during a time when other growers crops did not do well.
At one point Ferdinand was ready to release many of his employees, but Santigo, then twenty years old, stepped in and convinced his uncle not to release them. Santigo asked Ferdinand to let him try running a larger portion of the business with those who would have been let go working directly for him. The next season showed an increase in crop production on Santigos portion and after a few more seasons it became apparent that Santigo had a better head for business than his uncle did. At twenty two Santigo was put in charge of daily operations of the entire farm. Eventually the men who worked the farm came to know and trust Santigo to watch out for their interests as much as he did the farm. Without his realizing it they became his loyal followers and he protected them as if they were his family.
When Ferdinand took his place with the ancestors, the Cardamine farm was left to Santigo.
Santigos leadership abilities, sound business sense, and family devotion eventually gained the attention of the Alvarez Don. A messenger was sent to Santigo to request his presence at a meeting with the Don. The Don liked what he heard and saw from Santigo. As a result of that meeting Santigo became head grower for the Alvarez cartel at twenty six years of age.
Under his guidance the business expanded and Santigo purchased several neighboring Cardamine farms from other families. The workers on those farms were given the option of remaining there and changing over to Santigos way of doing things or moving on. Many of them had heard of Santigo and were eager to work for him so they stayed.
The business continued to flourish and grow with the purchase of several more farms. The wealth of Santigos plantations grew and became well known among Cardamine farmers across Malta.
As a result the Alvarez cartel soon became the largest Cardamine cartel on the planet, and Don Sal Alvarez became one of the most powerful men alive.
Power, however can make a man do things he would otherwise not even consider.
Don Sal went before the Outcast Pezzanovante or Don of Dons. The Pezzanovante, Don Juan Alvarez was Don Sals predecessor as head of the Alvarez cartel, but he had risen into the highest position of power on Malta and Don Sal had taken over in his place as head of the Alvarez family business.
No one is sure of what was said between these two great men, but the results of their meeting were devastating for the Alvarez family. A civil war erupted among two factions within the Alvarez family. Every Alvarez who knew how to pilot a ship joined the fighting as brother fought against brother in the bloodiest feud in Outcasts history. With no pilots to carry the Cardamine shipments during the war, Santigo had been forced to begin selling through other cartels to keep the farms going.
By the time it ended Santigo was twenty nine years old, he had never learned to fly nor had he taken sides in the civil war so he had continued to run the farms.
During the following year several different Dons came and went. They were men who had been through war and they seemed to know little else. Some died fighting the frequent Bounty Hunter groups that had begun incursions into Outcast space. Some were killed by assassins. With no Don able to run the business the Alvarez cartel slowly dwindled in numbers until there were only a handful of them left. Money was still plentiful as Santigo continued to take care of the farms, but eventually it appeared that Don Benito Alvarez would be the last Don of the Alvarez cartel.
Santigo met with Don Benito Alvarez to discuss plans to return the family to its former glory. Don Benito seemed pleased with Santigos ideas to help the family, but soon after that, Don Benito went missing. Only a short note was found on Don Benitos desk stating that the family was dead. For the first time in known history there was a time of uncertainty about the future of the Alvarez family.
At thirty years old Santigo decided it was time to learn to fly. He left the plantation in the hands of a reliable man and temporarily returned to the Texas system and his old family ranch. It was on this trip that he learned that the cardamine that was part of every thing on planet Malta had changed him, making it necessary for him to carry a supply of it with him when he left Malta or suffer greatly from its absence.
Once back in Texas Santigo contacted Cazador Alvarez who was the current cardamine distributor for the Alvarez in Liberty space. Cazador introduced Santigo to the many Outcasts allies among the Rogues and Lane Hackers in and around Liberty space.
On their long flights between hidden Junker, Rogue, and Hacker bases Santigo and Cazador often spoke of the family name, and their desire that it not be lost, but neither of them had any desire to be Don
Eventually Matteo Alvarez returned to Malta from some unknown place. As the eldest remaining Alvarez he asked for the title of Don and received it.
The change put a spark in the family and profits once again grew. The Alvarez soon returned to Malta and resumed their previous operations, though on a smaller scale than before the outcast civil war.
Eventually Santigo was named Capo and put in charge of a crew of Soldati (Outcast solders, or made men)
The family continued to grow during this time, and Santigo earned the respect and trust of most of the residents of Malta.
Then a day came when Don Matteo had to remove himself from the public eye. Rumors of assassins hired by rival cartels were common talk on the streets of Malta.
Santigo was promoted to Consigliere and given even more responsibility and power in the Alvarez family, but in the absence of the Don the family began to decline again. Even Cazador was forced to disappear for a time.
In desperation of saving the family, Santigo took steps to be named Don of the Alvarez.
Don Matteo was angered by Santigos move, but he saw the wisdom of Santigos leadership and he handed the title to Santigo, then disappeared.
The family took some time to recover from the leadership change, but Santigos dedication to the family eventually produced results and the family began to prosper once again. By 801 the Alvarez family was at its largest and most profitable state since before the civil war tore them down.
Outcast Alvarez Contrabandistas ran cardamine throughout Sirius in greater numbers than had ever been seen before. The Alvarez family remained relatively few in number but their influence and power had grown once again.
At the height of Don Santigos power the unthinkable happened. On a routine cardamine delivery run to Alcatraz base a Liberty cruiser group crossing through the ice field crossed paths with Santigos flight of Sabres. The ensuing fight was short and costly for the Alvarez family. Two of Santigos closest advisors were killed while Santigo and his right hand, Juan Miguel Alvarez, were taken into custody by the Liberty Navy.
Santigo and Juan stood trial for possession of Cardamine and were each sentenced to ten years incarceration. The two Outcasts were eventually transferred to the Liberty Prison station Sugarland.
Less than one week after their first day of imprisonment Juan led an escape attempt among several inmates. Many guards and inmates were killed in a bloody skirmish. Santigo never found out what became of Juan. Rumors that Juan and several others had escaped on an armored transport and disappeared into the South Dallas Debris Field gave Santigo hope that his hermano and most trusted confidant had escaped.
Fortunately for Santigo he was well known among the Liberty Rogues at that time and through the prisons black market trade Santigo acquired enough Cardamine on a regular basis to survive his years of incarceration.
When Santigos scheduled release date came he was told that there were some irregularities in his court documents that would delay his release. He heard the story over and over again for the next five years. Then suddenly fifteen years after his initial imprisonment he was placed on a Transport and taken to the dock yard on Planet Houston. The guards on the transport handed each man a small packet containing their neural net links and a few hundred credits for the work they had performed over the years of imprisonment and then told them they were free men again.
Santigo immediately traveled to the farm of his youth, but when he arrived he found only the bare stone foundation, and no sign of the family. Several days passed and Santigo made contact with the Liberty Rogues. They helped him acquire enough credits to buy a second hand Starflyer and with his newly acquired civilian status he began a new trade carrying cargo between stations and planets of Liberty space. Soon he found that his Rogue contacts could be used to make even more credits as a gun runner. He would buy light arms on the black markets of Liberty and carry them to the Rogues bases in Liberty.
Once he had enough credits he purchased a Dagger and began his journey home to Planet Malta. At the end of his journey he found his home had changed much since he was last on Maltan soil.
The name Alvarez had been long since forgotten and the family Cardamine farms had been sold off to others. It was as if everything Santigo knew had never occurred and here he stood alone having to start his life over again. He purchased a supply of cardamine and climbed back into his Dagger.
Now with no home; Santigo is truly outcast. Forgotten by his people and rejected by lawful society he travels from one Rogue, Junker, and Hacker base to the next selling pirated loot and acquiring the life sustaining cardamine.
As time passed Santigo acquired enough money to purchase a Sabre so he returned to Malta.
Once he arrived he headed to the shipyards where he had commissioned the building of his last Sabre over 16 years earlier.
While walking through the shipyard Santigo saw the first face he had recognized in over fifteen years.
Deidaro?! Hermano, is it you?
A grey haired mechanic turned from his work and dropped the wrench he was holding. He stood with his jaw slack and his eyes wide in surprise, staring at Santigo.
Santigo reached under his jacket as he stepped forward.
I have often imagined this moment, hermano. Santigos voice growled menacingly. Fifteen years I sat in that prison. It took some time to figure out how a Liberty cruiser and squadron of fighters would have managed to be in our flight line. I watched our hermanos Jose and Pablo die under the guns of those Liberty scum, Deidaro. Juan was captured with me and sent to the same prison station, but you, the least skilled of us all, somehow managed to escape unscathed.
Deidaros mouth snapped shut and he looked quickly left then right for an escape route. Seeing none he turned back to Santigo.
I watched you fly away towards Alcatraz as an entire wing of Navy fighters ignored you
Deidaro began to tremble. My Don, I had no choice. They threatened They would have
Santigo placed his left hand on Deidaros shoulder holding him in an iron grip as he produced an ancient firearm from an under shoulder holster with his right. He pressed the barrel of the pistol against Deidaros chest.
A single shot rang through the hanger. Those who had not already been watching turned to see Deidaro still standing with Santigos hand griping his shoulder and the pistol pressed into his chest. A dark red stain rapidly spread across the front of Deidaros coveralls.
Santigo leaned close to Deidaros left ear. You are forgiven, hermano. Say hello to the great spirits for me. Then he let go of the mans shoulder and Deidaro slumped slowly to the floor.
Santigo removed a handkerchief from a pocket and wiped the barrel of the pistol clean with it while he stared down at the dead man who was once a trusted member of his family.
Once the barrel was clean Santigo holstered the weapon and turned to the chief mechanic of the shipyard.
I am Don Santigo Alvarez. My hermano here he gestured toward the body, flew a Sabre when last I saw him. As his Don what was his is now mine. You will direct me to the ship.
The mechanic answered quickly, Yes, Don Santigo. I will take you there myself. Please follow me.
A short time later the two men stepped off a hover transport at a public landing pad.
The mechanic walked through the gate and Santigo followed him until he stopped before an old Sabre.
Santigo recognized it as a ship flown by the Alvarez at once. The family arms had been painted on it in bright colors once, but it was faded now.
As he stepped closer to the craft he stopped cold in his tracks.
Besides the standard all Kraken loadout of an Alvarez ship there were two guns on this ship of a very rare design.
One Santigo recognized as the Dark Blossom that was given to him as a badge of position when he had taken the title of Don so many years ago. The other was a Diamondback. He stepped closer and inspected the gun. Just as he suspected there was an inscription on it.
Mao de ferro da Saliencia
The mechanic who was standing close by asked If I may ask, Don Santigo, what does it mean? Mao de ferro da Saliencia
Loosely translated it means Iron Hand of the Don Replied Santigo. I gave this as a gift to my personal enforcer, Juan Miguel Alvarez. He was my closest counselor and most trusted friend. Seeing it here tells me that he never returned to Malta. Otherwise he would have torn Diedaros heart out with his hands for what he did to us.
Santigo dismissed the mechanic and boarded the ship. While he checked the systems he thought about what to do next. He was Don of a family that had scattered or perhaps even died out. He decided that above all else he needed to know what had happened to the rest of the Alvarez.
After finishing checking to be sure all systems were functional he launched and headed for Omicron Beta to begin searching for his lost familia.