Quote:The final chapter began in the sixth century AS, when an enterprising, well-armed Liberty freelancer named Jim Bown made his way to Omicron Gamma. He brought various Consumer Goods to trade, but the Corsairs could offer little but Artifacts. A year later, he returned. Those trinkets were all the rage with the elite of Manhattan. He saw a great business opportunity if they could set up a viable trade route to Liberty. The Corsairs were on their way. They grew rapidly in size and sophistication as they built up the Artifact trade.
Today, over 300 years later, Jim Bown's descendant, Winston Bown, is still continuing his ancestor's work by supplying the Liberty black market with artifacts and the Corsairs with food. Out of gratitude, the Corsairs have allowed Winston Bown to use their own weapons on his ships. Winston Bown is also a curious explorer and on his travels, he has discovered many wrecked fighters and restored their equipment to perfect working order, including long forgotten prototype weapons.
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Name: Winston Bown
Occupation: Freelancer
Age: 24
Home Planet: Planet Los Angeles, California System, Liberty Space
Winston Bown, like his ancestor, was born on Planet Los Angeles in Liberty. His family was extremely wealthy, but somehow, Winston knew that there was something not right about their wealth. For some reason, the Liberty Police was always around their house and sometimes, his father would come home exhausted. Of course, Winston thought that he had run into some particularly nasty pirates. Then the next day, the family would move elsewhere. By the time he was 18, Winston had been all over Sirius from the four major Houses to the dangerous Edge Worlds. Of course, this never bothered Winston, for he was always eager to see more of Sirius and every time he moved, one of the first things he would do was fly out and scan every edge of his new home system. There were times when he wanted to head north into the Outcast systems, but his parents never allowed it. One day, he snuck out and went into the Omicron Beta System. However, the minute the Outcasts saw his name, they attacked, calling him a "Corsair sympathizer." Winston didn't understand it; he had never seen his father contact any criminal before, except for the Junkers, but the local police never seemed to have any problems with them.
Then one day, his father took him out on one of his "trading" runs. Suddenly, he noticed that they were in the southern Omega Systems, which were known to be populated by one of the most dangerous pirates in Sirius: the Corsairs. Winston tried to figure out what was happening, but his father said "I'll tell you when we get there." About an hour later, they were docking on Planet Crete, home of the Corsairs. Then his father took him into one of the bars and told his son something that would change his life.
"Son, have you ever heard of your ancestor, Jim Bown?"
"Of course. Wasn't he one of the wealthiest traders in Sirius"
"Hell yeah, but didn't you ever wonder how he made all that wealth? No honest trader can pull that off."
"Honest? What are you saying?"
"Winston, Jim was a smuggler for the Corsairs. He was the first one to start the Liberty-Corsair smuggling route. Ever since then, it's become a family business."
Only stunned silence greeted these words.
"Look son, if you don't want to follow through with the business, I'll understand. You can go off on your own and do what you want and we'll support you."
"Are you kidding!? This is the coolest thing I've heard my entire life! I've always wanted to do something rebellious like this! That's why I went off to Omicron Beta during the night!"
"You what!?"
"Oh...ummmmm...nothing. It's not important."
"I know what you said Winston. I don't approve of it, but I'm glad you're taking this well. How about this? We'll get you a small Corsair freighter here and then you can do some runs for yourself. Just make sure you avoid the authorities."
"Yes sir! Thanks dad!"
After that, Winston Bown followed in his father's and his ancestor's footsteps, smuggling artifacts to Liberty and food to the Corsairs and enjoying the thrill of disobeying the law.
Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits
