I was born in 782A.S. on Planet Los Angeles. My family already had two other brothers, so my birth was not made a big deal of. My family was not rich, but neither were we poor. We lived in the Outer Circle of Los Angeles's capital city, in a moderate house. My dad worked for the Liberty Navy, but not in the way you might think. He always like flying transports, no one knew why, even he didn't know. It was a boring life in transporting goods, but my dad loved his job. He applied for the Liberty Navy and made a job as a transport pilot, shipping goods to research stations for study. Life was happy at the time he was alive with me, we would always do things together. He was a perfect father, the role-model for other dads, until the day came.
I was nine years old at the time, and was playing an online game with friends from my local school, when I heard an explosion in the air above our house. I rushed to where I heard the explosion to find a horrible sight. It was above the landing bay where my father kept his transport. There was now a massive crater where my dads transport once stood. Wreckage covered the surrounding area, and the rain began to fill the pool. The Navy told my mother and I that there had been a terrible accident, whilst he was fixing his transport, an explosion occurred because he forgot to cut the fuel line before using his welder. I didn't believe them for a second, I knew my dad well enough to know that he wouldn't make such a reckless mistake like that.
The event sent my mother into a spiral of madness and decay of the mind. She never spoke to me about what happened, never mentioned my dad again.
It was the morning of another day, several years after the death of my father. It was 795A.S, and by now I was 14. I was beginning puberty and some small spots had grown on my forehead. My brothers had moved out, one was 20 and the other was 22. I had been looking after my mum ever since the "accident" with dad's ship. I wanted to know the truth, but I just didn't know how to reach it.
We had had to sell our old house; we couldn't afford it anymore as we weren't getting enough money. We were living in a much smaller house far away from the capital; mum had insisted this since she did not want to be anywhere near where the "accident" had occurred.
I was lucky enough to get a small job packing food rations for transport to other planets, which got me enough money to survive and look after mum. Since my dad had died she had lost her mind and was turning mentally insane. I had to give her lots of care to make sure she was alright, we could not afford a clinic.
One day, a month after my sixteenth birthday, she started to talk. She had barely spoken since dad had died and she had lost her mind, but suddenly she started to talk to me. She said she wanted to go to Planet Kyushu, I didn't know why. She told me that every since she was a girl she had wanted to see that planet, with all of its wonders. I told her I would work on it, and began searching for a way to get us both there.
Luck struck two weeks later, and I found a shipping transport that was delivering Niobium to Kyushu. I managed to smuggle me and my mum onboard, and soon we felt the ship launch into space. I found a window on the right hand side of the container we were hiding in, and gazed at the planet that had housed me for so long. I had never been in space before, although my dad had told me one day he would take me there, but that day never came because of the "accident". I thought the sight was incredible, and I never forgot it.
Two weeks passed. We managed to survive on some food rations and water supplies we found in the container. Whilst we were asleep, a large "thump" woke me up. I looked out of the window again and was looking into a large warehouse. I decided now was the time to make our move. I woke my mum up, she was disorientated, and I had to partially drag her out before people came to unload the cargo.
I found a door on the far left hand side of the warehouse, and it was unlocked. I opened it and for a split second I forgot all of my troubles. I now knew why my mum had wanted to come here. The view was incredible, the landscape had barely been altered by the construction of the city, in fact it looked like the city had been built in just the right shape for the mountainsides. My mum found strength when she saw the view, and we walked toward a small hotel where the view could be seen perfectly.
We arrived at the hotel, and I showed my mum the view from the window. She leaned on the banister with me and looked out at it, then walked back into the room. I continued to stare at the magnificent view, and then I heard a "click" and a "thump". I turned around, and saw my mum had shot herself in the head. The blood and brain fluids leaked from her head, and I was sick over the banister because of the smell. As I walked away from the banister I heard a couple shouting up at me because the sick had landed on them. I did not care; I just kept on walking out of the door, not looking back, ever.
I returned to Liberty on another transport. The fact that my mum had shot herself so close to me suggested that she had planned it for a long time. The death of dad had gotten to her more then I thought, so much so that she couldn't live without him. I cried as the transport took off, so the pilots could not hear it. I did not think it was likely the pilots would hear anything, but I did not want to risk it.
For the next two weeks I curled up on the containers floor, occasionally looking out the window towards the stars, hoping that one of them would lead to a better life for me.
I was now seventeen, and my life was having a slight change. I had abandoned the job of packing food and had spent every credit I had on flight lessons. Turns out I'm a brilliant fighter pilot. I gave one of my brothers, Paul, a demonstration of how good I was, and he was impressed. I then told him about mum's death, and I saw he was hiding the tears. He told me he worked for the Liberty Navy now, and that there always interested. I told him that I would think about it, but for the moment I would like to freelance. For the next month I performed random jobs for multiple groups, mainly escorting convoys from point A to B. But one day I came close to the red line known as death.
I was escorting a convoy of transports taking food rations to Manhattan. There were thousands of them, and I was surprised they had only hired three escorts for the job. I was flying a basic Patriot, a good fighter for a freelance working in Liberty.
When we were passing through an ice cloud in California, that's when the red line inched its way towards me. The lane was disrupted, and we were attacked. At least 10 Outcast Daggers were rushing in, and I immediately swung into action. I charged the weapons and fired the missiles, but I wasn't killing nearly as many as the other two escorts. They were flying Bounty Hunter Piranha's, and were taking the Daggers down easily. At the end, the lose was one container of one of the transports. The Hunters told me I looked good with lots of potential, and told me to meet them on Manhattan.
The transports arrived at Manhattan without any further disturbances. I landed and met the Hunters in the bar. The atmosphere was clouded with smoke from cigars, and the place was crowded. The Hunters showed me to a table, and they told me the Bounty Hunters would be glad to have me on there team. I accepted to offer, I knew it would help me in my work if I knew about the major contracts.
For the next two months I hunted multiple targets in Liberty, most of them in California. Then I heard about a massive contract in Magellan. Apparently, a member of the Reapers of Sirius was making a stop at the Lane Hackers local base, Mactan. I decided then and there if I did this contract I would be in the gold.
I loaded my ship and took off, with several other Hunters on my tail. I did not know the targets name, the advertisement had not told said. But I didn't think about it until it was to late.
We approached the target with caution, as he was in a Sabre, and charged our weapons. He noticed us, and told us we were about to die. I recognized the voice immediately; it was my other brother, Will. I told the other Hunters not to shoot, and they responded by attacking me. I told Paul who I was, and he immediately came to assist.
Together we managed to destroy the Hunters, and he told me he would meet me in Freeport 4's bar.
The atmosphere in the bar was filled with smoke, like the one of Manhattan. Paul was sitting at a table in the back. He had changed a lot since I had seen him last, his hair had grown, his face had changed completely. He told me one thing, leave the Hunters while I still could, then with those words he stood up and began to leave. I told him about mum's suicide, which made him pause walking, but then he continued. I left The Hunters after that, I took my brothers only advice he had ever given me.
I decided to take up on Pauls offer about the Liberty Navy, and he was delighted. He told me my first job was to help with building some parts on Avengers. He had noticed my customization of my Patriot, and saw I was good with ships. I got to work, and soon I was one of the main engineers, working on Avengers as if I was born building one.
One day, I decided to search one thing. I had been given full access to the Liberty Navys database, and I used this to search for the report on my dad's death. It said that my dad, Robert Arkantos, had stumbled onto some information that he wasn't supposed to know. With the Navy knowing this, they simply assassinated him by sabotaging his ship, and telling me and my mum it was caused by an accident.
As soon as I finished reading the report I was furious. I immediately walked into my supervisors office and told him he could shove the job where the sun didn't shine. I took my personal Avenger, customized especially for me, by me, and launched off Manhattan and exited the Atmosphere. It was 799A.S. that I made this decision, and I was eighteen years old. I flew to zone 21, using my ships computer to find the opening, and I took the Alaska jump gate. I did not know what to expect, what was inside of Alaska was the only file I could not access with my clearance. I jumped, not knowing what I would find, whether it would be for the better or for the worse.
I found myself in the middle of a battle when I arrived. It was between the Liberty Navy, and some ships that looked similar to Avengers. I decided to attack the Liberty Navy ships, they had betrayed my family, and they deserved to die. The other ships noticed me attacking what appeared to be my own, and decided not to attack me. Soon the Liberty Navy ships were destroyed, and there wreckage floated into empty space. They told me to follow them, and I complied.
I was led through the rocks, which resembled two narrow triangular based prisms stuck to each other on the bottom, towards a jump hole. We jumped, and they took me to a planet. They told me they were known as the Order, a group of people sworn to protect humanity against alien threats, and they immediately allowed me to become part of them. They knew that because I attacked Liberty Navy ships I was not a spy, and they thought they could trust me.
They gave me an Anubis and gave me some protection duties, protecting Planet Toledo at all costs.
Ever since then I have been a part of the Order. I fought in the Nomad war and the fight to protect Toledo, and my ship was almost destroyed in the process. Over the years the Order have given me there trust, and there friendship. I rose up the ranks and achieved Captain. Captain John Arkantos, it has a ring to it.
This is Captain John Arkantos of the Order Signing Out.