"Why don't you start writing down your thoughts, your memories? Maybe it helps you remember..." "I don't need to Remember... I simply don't care. But I might start writing, could be fun..."
And it was how it started, I made myself a little private channel on the net,
and started writing down everything I recalled from the first day I started over.
"What's your name?" Many ask me, and they think I'm making fun of them when I say "I don't have a name!"... "So what does 'aerelm' mean?" they always ask right afterwards. What I do, is shrug and say "Nothing!" and enjoy their puzzled expression. But it really means nothing... It's something completely made-up. "Where are you from then?" many ask after that, and when I say "Nowhere." they think I'm fooling around... Again! But again, it's part of the truth. I'm from nowhere I know. I woke up in a hospital on Erie, a year ago. That's why I guess I'm Libertonian by birth, but who knows? All I know is a Zoner found my pod on 24th of March, 817 A.S, somewhere around Allentown Base and brought it to a Zoners hospital on Erie... Or that's what the papers say! I've been in coma for nearly half a year after that, when I finally woke up... September 6th, 817 A.S... There were no ID card, no relatives who were looking for me, and not a single trace of my past. There was only a kind Zoner who accepted to pay all the damn costs of the hospital. So I was there, standing in front of the hospital door, not remembering a thing! Or did I? A Siege Cruiser exploding and me getting caught in the explosion was the only thing I remembered, but even -that- was not clear enough to be called a 'memory'.
"So who are you sir?" I heard and turned around to find that same Zoner standing behind me, "I don't know, and you?"... Well, Didn't notice it back then, but now that I think of it, he wasn't surprised at all, unlike many others I met later, he just raised his hand toward me and said "Name is Austin Elzner, the one who found your pod 6 months ago." I just nodded and shook his hand. "Well, you had no ID card with you, I believe you'll have to register for a new one." He said, problem was, I didn't remember how exactly to do that. Funny how he was willing to help despite not even knowing me! So, half an hour later, I was standing in front of the computer, looking at the screen, thinking about what should I put in all those fields. "Name", "Date of Birth", "Callsign" and all those required fields I didn't know what to write in. What I did, was just reading across the whole page and picking 5 random letters. a, e, m, r, l. Didn't take me long to figure out a good enough callsign out of that, and I did the same to other questions, I just filled them up with random numbers and letters.
But who cared? Many call it 'being lost', I call it 'a new beginning'. I started over, from scratch... But the only thing I knew I can do, was to fly a ship. Maybe the only thing I had with me from my 'past life'! Then it was when I got lucky, I was standing in a corner of ship dealers hall when this old guy with Universal uniform walked up to me and said, "Hey, you want a job son?" I shrugged and said, "I'd love to, but I have no ship.", "Well, none of the Mercs I know are around, so I could try my luck on you." so he walked to the dealer and I followed, That was where I got my Starflea, a really crappy ship, but still, better than sitting on a planet for rest of my life! Seems some Rogues had pirated that old guy and he was seriously mad, so he just gave me their last location, and told me he'll pay me 100k per Ship if I blast them to dust! Who was I to refuse such an offer?!
An armorless Flea? Now that I think of it, it was really suicide to fly that thing! But I seriously didn't care back then, it felt good to be back in space, even though I had no actual memories of being in space before then. Even more stupid was trying to get rid of bunch of Rogues in that ship! Mk2 Lavablades are cool if you ask me, So bad I can't use 'em anymore, heh! Krakens sure make up for them! So, there I was, chasing four Rogue Bloodhounds who, I still don't know why, were running from me. Well, they meant a fresh 400k for me, which made me chase 'em anyways! Was a nice firework, and a tense one to say the least! Guess what? A single flea is more than a match for four Bloodhounds if you know how to fly it. Guncams were saved and a grin was on my face, as I flew back to Erie. So, after the Universal dude paid me, I took off for New York. Funny thing was, I remembered the way, didn't even had to check the NavMap to find which way to go. 'Yeeeeeehaaaaw!' I shouted out as I entered the jumpgate, heh, Silly! But it felt good. New York's system comms were just too crowded you couldn't make out a single word off it, 'Like always!' I remember telling myself, and exactly remember how surprised I was, as I asked myself, 'Wait, what?!' and started laughing. I was happy for no particular reason, I believed being back in space was a good enough reason to be happy. View of Manhattan closing in fast as I took the lane from Westpoint was exciting to say the least.
Nothing really special happened for a few hours, I was flying around New York aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do next. But surprise! Few hours later, three Rogues in Wolfhounds knocked me out of lane on my way to Pittsburgh - That's not a really fancy planet, but they have some damn good drinks in the bar -. Guess what? They had found their buddies who I sent floating around in pods, and were there to 'Teach me a Lesson'..! Now that could've been a problem... I mean, seriously, a flea against three Wolfhounds? Not a chance! I was lucky that this Merc who called himself 'Phoenix' jumped out of lane soon after they had attacked me. Thanks to that guy (Who, when I think about it now, wasn't really that much of a fighter, just had better ship) I managed to survive that fight and we flew to Pitts from there. "You fight pretty well in that junk!" He told me, and then offered me a job which although sounded pretty lame, but was my only chance. He wanted me to join his little merc gang and help him collect on bounties and do some escort jobs to make some cash, and he offered me 2 millions as a head start. I was like '2 millions? Wow!' But little did I know that within less than a year, I would be one of the richest men in Sirius! So he got me a salvaged Guardian from a Junker and I put some Wildfires on it... Really nice guns!
But yea... Flying a salvaged Guardian around Liberty was not a good idea. Every single Navy and Police were asking me to return the ship to Norfolk and get back in my little Starflea, which made me move out to Rheinland, without remembering things will get even worse out there! Well, I returned to Liberty within a week and me and the 'Phoenix' dude escorted a few transports and blasted a few 'Reds' to get our hands on some money. But the whole time, I didn't really feel good about all that 'merc gang' deal. I was looking for a chance to put enough cash together and move on. My Lucky day came faster than I thought, I was flying around New York on my own, when I ran into these two transports who were looking for an escort... So, I jumped in their convoy and made 3 millions after a long trip. Then I returned to Liberty and bought myself a Camara to get some money out of the scrapfields around Pitts - That's were I made some Junker friends who helped me a lot after that. Hmm... Now that I think about it, I might actually buy a Camara again and put it in the hangar. That's a pretty nice ship!
"You stole my scrap!!" I still remember those poor scavengers shouting at each other and their silly threats of "Give it back or I kill you!" while they had only mining turrets on their worn-out freighters! It made me laugh even back then! I mean, come on! They always argued on like, 10 scrap or so! They sold 600 a piece or somesuch on Pitts, is 6k such a big number? Even then, 6k wasn't even pocket change for me. Well... Those were the good old Pitts days for me. Sometimes I seriously miss those days, I would sit in the field and mine all day, sing myself some random songs, have some casual chatter with other miners. Hmm... I remember two of them by name, others just some fade memories. First, there was this Imar dude, such a strange man! Always silent, answering all the questions with the shortest wording possible, and never asking anything himself. But he was a damn fast miner! After a while he simply disappeared, haven't heard much about him since then, but I did hear a rumor or two about him moving to Taus to join the IMG to mine Niobium. Anyways... Then there was also this fun guy who called himself "Condor"... Some made fun of his name, but I'd rather not bring that one up! Funny thing about him, was he was in the Navy, but was mining scrap at Pitts when he was off duty! Seems they didn't pay him enough... Or maybe he spent too much! Heh, well, I never saw him rich, even though he mined a lot, and by that, I mean A Lot! He just spent all his cash on drinks and stuff. But yeah, he moved out of Liberty after a while as well. Didn't hear anything about him though... Once overheard some chatter from two passerby Freelancers talking about some Navy-Junker-Thing(!) who had gone rogue and the Police was after him... Well, might have been the guy, Or someone else! Who knows.
Heh, I still remember the first "combat ship" I bought when I could afford one... Was my good old Roc! She really served me well in this past year... But well, flying a bomber means you'll get half a dozen of fighters on your ass in any fight... Not really fun! So yeah, anyways, that Roc was my best buddy for a long time! And when I first bought it, I didn't even have enough cash to put a Snac on it! Yeah, just bought the ship itself and put some Wildfires, a Hornet and a Starkiller on it! Didn't really need to fight back then, had just bought the ship to travel around and chill when I get tired of mining Scrap. So yeah, those crappy guns did well enough, and looked cool enough for me! Hmm... Still remember when I bought my first Snac. Was a real bargain! Bought a second-hand one for 4 mils, and although that was nearly all the money I had back then, but was seriously worth it! Seems that same Condor dude had knocked out a Rogue Ghest, and somehow, the Ghest had a spare SN in his Cargo. So when I saw him the next day while we were both mining scrap, he was like "Hey, you have a Roc, yeah? I can give you a cheap Snac if you want!" And well, that was when I started practicing. Bought a combat simulator later on, installed it on my ship computer, and practiced every once in a while until I was good enough with all those guns and stuff to save my butt if I had to some day! But my 'freelancing life' started when I had enough cash put aside from all that scrap mining, and wanted to move on. A friend showed me the way to Barrier Gate, and although it was all familiar, everything seemed new. I got armor and stuff on my pretty Roc, and headed to Bretonia from there... Well, who knew that same "Humble Miner" people used to run into around Pitts would turn into someone who is on various lists on Liberty 'criminal' files and is trusted enough by the Outcasts to be able to use their weapons? I'm not a 'criminal' though, I'm a Freelancer who doesn't care what the so-called 'Lawfools' think of him!
So, you know what the problem with just flying around is? Even the radiation is enough to give you a nice and cool repair bill, and you'll run out of cash much sooner than you'd thought! Well, I wasn't going back to mining, that was for sure. Instead, I decided to see what I can do other than that. I was sitting at the FP2 bar, reading news and checking the net, and I noticed some ad about hiring network security programmers. Well, I knew how to handle computers and stuff like that, so I thought 'Why not?' Was definitely worth the try. The pay wasn't -that- good, but definitely good enough to keep me going for some time, and the good part about it, was that we could use the remote consoles to keep an eye on things. So I could fly around and also do my work and get paid at the same time!
The first few months were just the same boring crap, me and a team of 5 other programmers taking care of all the stuff and getting paid, and it was much easier than I had thought, but then, I was contacted by one of the oldest private banks in Liberty, who - for some reason - were interested in my work, and wanted me to write them a whole new encryption and security system. Seems they were getting attacked by some unknown hacker for the past couple days, and they wanted to act faster before the dude manages to breach their security. The one hitting their servers was definitely an interesting one. One of the sneakiest hackers I've ever seen in my life - Well, he turned out to be a Lane Hacker in the end, and I wasn't really surprised -. I was working on a new security system and also trying to track down this hacker, so this was when I decided to set a trap for him. When the new security system was ready, I installed a fake version on the main computer instead of the final version. What this 'mousetrap' version did, was to simply redirect the data stream to my own computer, and start uploading a bunch of useless junk and random crap. With a bit of luck, this could make the hacker think he's finally breached the security, and could buy me some time to track him down and see who and where he is. The result wasn't as good as I was hoping though, it turned out to be the public comm access on Freeport 4, and there was no way to track who was the exact person using it. So, I just decided to call it a draw and installed the main system on the bank's database.
I still decided to drop by FP4 anyway to see if I can find out anything about this hacker, but seems I wasn't the only one who was looking for the other. I spent a few hours at FP4, asking around to see if anyone had seen anything unusual, but no one really had a satisfying answer for me. Just when I decided it's pointless and undocked from Freeport, I got contacted by this Sabre right next to me, "Lookin' for me so hard?". For some reason, the Lane Hacker transponder didn't surprise me, and I knew who was I talking to. This person with "Medium Blue" callsign, was definitely the one behind the attacks on the bank. Interesting part was, neither of us was there to shoot the other one, because we both wanted to talk, and that we did. We took a spin around the place and had a word about our works. He believed he was not a pirate, as he never hit on transports and hacked random net accounts instead, taking enough credits to last him a few months. Thinkin' about it, it was actually a good way to make money! Seems I was the one ruining his business though. But he had a better plan. He was offering me a job, and accepting that offer was how I got into all this fun mess I'm in! Seeing the 'Unlawful' side of things was fun, and being 'colleagues' with a Lane Hacker definitely helped.
More than two years since the last time I updated this thing. I wish I could've been like "Yea, totally forgot about it", but it's more like "Yea, totally had no freakin time to sit and write silly stuff no one would ever read." Oh well, who cares. Since I've got some free time on my hand again, why not waste it on finishing this thing so it won't bug me again? I do hope I don't get stuck with it though. Having a "diary" is the last thing I'd need, cause apart from being utterly lame, it's too freakin time consuming. Bleh, anyways... Instead of going all ragey on my own arse, I'm gonna take a more subtle approach and pretend the 2 years pause never happened.
Gonna be hell of a pain - And a waste of time at that, needless to say - trying to remember stuff from three years ago and whatnot.
The idea itself was a simple one, playing it out though... That was the tricky part. The bank had a reputation, and with such a reputation comes tones of people with stuffed accounts. I wasn't going to steal their cash though, woulda been nowhere better than raping a transport somewhere down a lane and running away with a couple of millions. Stealing doesn't have no style, so I had something more "classy" in mind - Something less risky and something that, if played out right, coulda slipped through unnoticed.
The bank had this ridiculous system for calculating the interest rates, and it wasn't that big of a deal to alter the algorithm. The tricky part was, doing it without getting caught. The bank handed out around two billions worth of interest to those rich bastards each month, and the idea was to sneak a worm in, which would get to work right after all the accounts are processed and the interests are all on the book, and rewire the money to somewhere else - Some place where the cash could actually be put into good use, rather than sitting there for ages to come. Needless to say, that "some place" was my personal account. Wasn't that hard, writing down the code, especially with the help of that hacker who actually knew what he was doing. What we had to make sure was that no one would notice the little "glitch" in their system, so the payments would keep coming month after month. Was hell of a risk though, even the slightest screw-up woulda meant the whole plan going to hell and goodbye loads of money!
Now, that, was an epic way to get some adrenaline going. It was hours of coding and monitoring, with loads of beer and lots of smokes, but we did get busted in the end! No one managed to find out who was behind all that mess, but they did cut the leak after four months. Took them long enough if you ask me! By the time they realized something's wrong, I was well out of Liberty, with my share of 5 billions sitting in my account, and there I was, enjoying my vacation on Curacao, thinking the money will last forever... But that's the thing with having too much cash - You spend too much as well, and with no steady income, sooner or later it'll be the same old story all over again.
And right there, my precious codename collection. My greatest waste of money of all times! Not saying I regret collecting all those shiny pieces, but if I had just kept the money saved up, living the life I do, that five billions would've lasted me some fifty lifetimes. But oh well.. What's the point of having crapton of cash if you never spend any of it? Have to admit though, I've never really been a big fan of codenames as weapons. Claymore does look sexy as hell, and Heimdall does pack a damn nice punch, but they're way overrated. Having them as a collection though, that's the real use of 'em if you ask me. Collecting all those guns did cost me a fortune (And it was before that damn Cody ruined the code market like a real swine!) but it was worth every single bit of credit I spent on it. Only the top-notch codes, and only the high quality ones at that. None of those "failed prototypes" and them mass produced copies. It was the real deal, and it was hard to find, and that's what I liked about it back then - It was a challenge.
Just like anything esle though.. You work your arse off to get there, and once you're there, you just look around yourself, raise an eyebrow and ask "Yeah... So?" I still remember the day I got the last piece for my collection. That was an exciting day. Finally had my last piece of the collection, and was going to celebrate it with a nice bottle of vintage wine, and that was some damn good stuff. But a glass or two later, I was just sitting there, reclining on my chair, smoking my cigarette, and thinking why the hell did I even went through the trouble of putting all those bits together to have a unique codename collection of my own? Needless to say, couldn't really find a good enough answer for my own question, but decided to keep the guns anyways, because after all, getting them all was an adventure nonetheless.
I might sell them some day, or I might just keep them there, sitting and checking the list on my notepad, feeling rich and all. Who knows.
Working with a hacker had its benefits. So did getting dragged into the 'unlawful' side of things, but just like any other line of life, it had its difficulties as well. The one major problem with it though, was the black and white view everyone had on stuff like this. Once you get dragged into the mess, you keep getting deeper and deeper into this 'business', not because of your background, but only because of the reputation you get. Once you're labeled as a 'criminal', it doesn't matter whether it's because of a neuralnet crime, or serial killing. Once you're labeled as a criminal, you get shot at by the lawful groups, and start getting on the better side of the unlawful groups -Or some of them, at least -, and end up making a bunch of new friends in your own line of work. That's the turn my life decided to take. Working with a hacker meant getting closer to the rest of them, and through them the Rogues, and in the end getting shot at by the Navy and the Police regardless of my background.
Now, starting to work with a hacker was more beneficial than anything else. There was this group back in Liberty who called themselves "Vagrant Raiders". Some messed up ex-smuggler ex-outcast ex-pirate lane hackers or something - And they didn't last as hackers long -, but flying with them was fun. They weren't much defensive toward outsiders like some other hackers, and they always had this raiding parties they went on to hit on transports around Liberty, which usually ended up with far too many Navy caps involved, so they could always use an extra bomber, and my old Roc didn't fail me at that. They didn't have many people with them, but they were always around. No matter when you took off for a spin, there was at least one raider you could run into, and seeing how those poor traders turned out after running into them, sometimes I felt glad I was on their good side.
Now, the real trouble from Navy really didn't start from there, but that's another story. Working with the Raiders and the Rogues, I was just another gun-for-hire to them, but that wasn't really the case. I was there for the action, and action I did get with them. It was around those times I actually started to realize how much of excitement life of an outlaw can have. Them lawful boys always had to spend hours after hours patrolling through empty lanes, and risking their lives for a bunch of ungrateful traders, but the unlawful bunch on the other hand.. They could waste all the time in the world without having to answer to anyone, do whatever they like, and live the life they want. And then there was all the booze! I don't know if it's just me, or do the unlawful types actually have a far better taste when it comes to drinks, but hell... The stuff I got to drink around Buffalo and Vogtland, is on a whole different level compared to the horse-piss they served on Manhattan and New London. Sadly.. Can say the same about Junker and Zoner bases too.
There is this thing I have for people who have style. Even if they're on the worst end of my gun, I can't not respect them.. And let alone if they're a future ally. I really don't remember the first time I ran into someone from the 101st, but I do remember the first time I ran into the guy leading them. There are a lot of Casts around Liberty, but they're not of the pleasant type. Drug dealers, pimps, junkies, muggers. Right before meeting that one guy from the 101st, I was under the impression that Casts are dedicated to spoiling Sirius, sticking their fingers into every single shady business they can find. But then I run into this certain Jameson persona who's leading a well organized Navy-type group, who usually stay up in Omicrons and Taus, where the Casts first came from. Can't say I wasn't impressed.
It was during this one fight in front of Manhattan, where a bunch of Raiders were up against an armada of Navy ships which was the usual deal, but there were also a wing of 101st ships there, acting all italian and ripping the Navy a new one with their shiny toys, and there was this one person they called "administrator" who seemed to be their boss, and I have to say, from the first glance that guy seemed to be a man of taste - The type I can't not respect. Even when the hackers in that fight were flying mainstream Sabres, that guy was in a Bayo geared up with Krakens, shaking off nearly a dozen ships off his back, and he was doing a damn good job. Now, with someone like that in the fight, I couldn't really stand aside and watch, could I?
That was a tough fight. Seemed like the Navy was throwing in all they had just to get that Jameson persona blasted into space dust. Nothing half a dozen of good bomber pilots couldn't handle though. Once the fight was over, we each went our own way, but there was something needed to be done so I could contact them again in future to get some stuff going with them so I can get to know their group better - And that's where the beauty of being a Freelancer proved to be useful. It was rather funny though... Me, sitting on a massive pile of money, and contacting the 101st about my "payment" for that fight. I was sure they wouldn't offer more than pocket change and I wasn't doing it for the money.. But what the hell did they know?
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