Most believe there are heroes and villains, from religion to politics there are always groups fighting for good and evil. With every story there is always a hero, nonetheless this won’t quite be one of those. This story begins somewhere not no special in a galaxy that was all too dangerous. The Skardee System held a main sequence star, not too different from the one of Sol, with 5 small bodies quietly moving through space. The history of Skardee 4 is relatively unknown, lost to history when Galcop dissolved in the 3170’s. What is known is that the first colonists were hand picked to run the terraforming and farming operation of the planet. Once the planet was terraformed, however, the Federation soon came to power and set the remaining people up as citizens. They saw the remaining people had the skills to farm quite successfully, given the harsh terrain, which brought about a sizable demand for agricultural products for the small system. Not many even knew that planetside of low population systems, space travel is still almost a dream to most in the 3280's. In those days, a young boy named Nathan was captivated with old earth history - always seeing achievements in the mistakes of generations long deceased. Most of the days he filled his head with bright optimism which had his mind many light-years away. With a system of just over 3,500 people, the Lanner MkII heavy traders were all the planet ever saw. Most of them being corporate owned ships meant there weren't a whole lot of shipyards around for the cheaper, smaller ships that were available for young-upstart space commanders. However, the Federation had built a communications database center in his settlement by the end of 3292, right as our young bright-eyed Nathan started back to grade school. This enabled any citizen to access all the available historical and current news information of the Federation, accessible through personal dataslate, given to each registered citizen. It was the best advancement in communication the fletchling planet had seen since the first colonists settled here. Not that many of the populace of Skardee ever cared - they were more concerned with meeting the production requirements for fruits, vegetables, and grains that were set by the Federation. The workers on these terraformed worlds spent long working days in and day out, even though the planet was terraformed - the wildness of nature that began to flourish was constantly battled and controlled. The extended history of Skardee is being relatively unknown, so most of the evolution of the planet still a mystery to most. Historic records were harder to keep in the old days as no standard record keeping data cores were kept up to date after the collapse of Galcorp.

With the dataslate access, Nathan's youth was filled with exploring old Earth historical records. He'd go on for hours on the topic of interest: the old findings of the early physics and mathematicians of the 21st century. "The math was simple enough - most of them were unsolvable at the time!" Nathan often exclaimed, in the low funded Federation science classroom. "Of course, little one", said the stubby, gray haired professor- if you could call him that. He only had the title as he was, quite simply, one of the only people within 7,500 kilometers with any kind of formal teaching diploma. "They were simply written as such because our ancestors lacked the knowledge of hyperspace travel technology. Look here whenever I add in the witchspace coefficient" said the professor as he leaned down to type out the equation into the dataslates 4-D graphing computer, thus activating the library’s holofact projector. With little free time Nathan had back then, he spent it learning advanced physics all the way up to the Foundations of Eccentric Hyperspace theory classes given out by the Sirius Corporation as secondary education. He was captivated by learning and exploring the discoveries of humanity and the galaxy. Being the 7th brother to a family of 10, Nathan's interests fell on deaf ears as the list of priorities for my parents were always on other matters of the farm and family. His father had a lineage that stretched back to the first colonists. His mother was of Imperial rule, brought into the federation in order to escape the social fall into slavery. His parents were not poor or rich but enjoyed a common, simple life enjoyed by most federal citizens close to the core worlds - comparable to a middle-class lifestyle in the 21st century. However, his parents silenced any interest that wasn’t integral to producing more for the family or the Federation. As a boy, this made him rebel, not surprisingly. This took the form of putting his unnecessary space schooling before agro production on purpose. Even outside the family, was not a popular position on this particular planet. This drove him to be rather an outcast, keeping to himself distance from others. He was very smart which was often overlooked by his peers and even parents. Nathan was often a silent thinker at heart - pondering, questioning, and observing the world around him. The only good thing about Skardee was the clear perfect night sky where he could see billions of stars. With most of the land being used as farmland, the only light pollution for thousands of square kilometers was the blinking red light of comms stations. Like the minds of old philosophers of earth, he would sit and try to solve the riddles of the origins of life and the universe. Letting his mind flow as he peered up into the night sky and tried to mentally calculate the odds of his existence. As it usually did, his mind then fell to fantasy of the epic space battles being fought high above on other distant worlds. However there was one event that changed everything for our young Nathan, and it set his life to heights he would never have dreamed.

At the turn of the century - late 3299, Skardee was going through a changing time, hell along with the rest of the galaxy at the time. With the latest Saud Kruger Narwhal Liners adopted to serve as Starship One, the personal transport of the President of the Federation, and with the news from the Sirius Corporation releasing a revolutionary new hyperdrive system: the Frame Shift Drive. The lastest new FSD was discovered to be smaller, more efficient, and cut the travel time in hyperspace down from hours to seconds while also depositing pilots at a system's primary star after a jump rather than the outskirts. In addition, it included a "supercruise'' mode for rapid in-system travel, allowing commanders to approach 2,001 times the speed of light. This was quite simply, a huge announcement. This culminated in a new Pilots Federation Initiative program for agents to travel out of Shinrarta Dezhra to all possible star systems of all the Federation, Empire, and Alliance and recruit new pilots. The program included a fast-tracked plan that promised wide-eyed pilots 1000 credits and their own sidewinder upon completion. This was the biggest recruitment boom since the 3290's when the Pilots Federation expanded its ranking system to encompass the fields of trade and exploration along with old combat Elite ranking. When the agents came to Skardee, Nathan immediately submitted his application - albeit a secret from the rest of the community. To his overwhelming surprise, one morning he checked his dataslate communications inbox to find his application had been accepted. He was soon shipped off to the Dromi System in the Pilots Federation District to spend the next few years training. This unleashed an surge of that bright-eyed optimism that Nathan felt, same as by many before him - the call to explore, chase the frontier, discovery of new worlds, blasting pirates, and just maybe, the chance to make it long enough to be one of the Elite.

By 3300, all registered ships had been upgraded with this new technology. Nathan got through his pilots federation training part way through 3305 and got his first sidewinder. He was officially a commander - not that the program was actually any good at teaching the new pilots the skill. The thing about a fast track program is that they teach you everything you need to know - if it were a perfect galaxy. This galaxy turned out to be a pretty dangerous place and things don't always go to plan. Many new trigger happy pilots of the time would get their shiny new sidewinder and boost themselves right into oblivion on the interior of the space station on the first launch. This was exactly what happened when Nathan got in his sidewinder for the first time. He had only seen the inside of a real ship when he took his training test for his pilot's license, the rest had been simulations only. He excitedly touched the controls and accidentally bumped the boost button right as he lifted off, smashing into the interior of the station and exploding into bits of burn debris. Saved by the escape capsule and recovered by local station EMT's. This is where Nathan blazed his path, and where the story about him began. The following logs are a collection of those stories from Nathan's life, collected and presented in the following short stories.