grew up on Earth, as far back as I can remember I wanted to be out amongst the starts. I pretty much grew up with a spanner in my hand, if something could be tinkered with I’d be tinkering. Even as a kid I’d reverse engineer my grandfathers watches to understand how they worked.

The moment I left school I joint the pilot federation academy. That’s where I met Nomad6060, we got on like a house on fire. Most nights were spent over a drink or two followed by the latest plan on how we were going to make our name in the galaxy.

Alongside my main pilot training I signed up for the engineering course. I loved every minute, got to experiment with a wide range of ships and components, my mind would run wild with ideas on how to build and mod different ships for different purposes. Nomad6060 always had his head in books, he was an explorer at heart but instead of signing up to the exploration course he decided to do an economics course. I thought he was crazy, he’d watch the stock market and keep an eye on trade routs. He got to know the commodity market like the back of his hand.

We both graduated the same year and passed our additional courses. We had both decided once we were out in the Galaxy we would stick together, it’s a big place and someone having your back can go a long way. The first few months we just got use to the bubble, finding the best bars and hot spots took up must of our time.

All I wanted to do was go fast, mod this, tweak that. All I really cared about is what I could make a ship do. Problem is, you can only do so much engineering on a none existent bank balance.

So after a few months of fun and blowing what money I had on ship builds, Nomad6060 sat me down loaned me some cash to buy my first meaningful ship and took me under his wing. The penny dropped, I never really thought he enjoyed number crunching during our years at the academy but once I started trading with him the money came in thick and fast. He would see a silver tuna before it even appeared on the market. I was a dreamer during the academy but never planned on how we would actually get there, luckily he did!

After months of successful trading, we had our own small business and enough money to start doing the things we really wanted to do. As I said I knew Nomad6060 was an explorer at heart, I helped him put together an exploration ship and he set off into the void. He would be gone for months at a time, returning with stories and pictures of the places he had been. With all the cartography data he returned with, our company’s balance just grew and grew.

I did what I do best, jump from ship to ship playing with builds and mods, we had settled in Hyroks so in between my long hours in the garage I would do whatever work was on offer. It wasn’t until I took on a mining job that I started to focus on something. Being in the belts trying to find the best rocks and maximize a ships cargo become an obsession.

Once Nomad6060 had seen enough of the void to satisfy him he returned, before settling in the bubble he did convince me to go on a few explorations with him. It was a great experience, being out of the bubble was refreshing. Once we were back I took him out to the belts, he enjoyed mining as much as me. That’s where we found our home, in the belts.

Once our mining business was established our company expanded. As with all mining we often ran into pirates, long story short we introduced a mining security department to our business, closely followed by a haulage department. SILC Industries was born and we would travel the bubble offering our system fleet package to factions in need of support.

We soon went into partnership with Sirius Corp, focusing on their mining department Sirius Mining. After a successful few years we ended up taking ownership and managerial responsibilities of Sirius Mining. SILC Industries, the company that started us on this journey ended but we became Sirius Mining. With a true home and a minor faction to our name, we finally felt like we had our place in the galaxy.

Unfortunately we were unable to keep up with the demands of a rapidly growing faction. Things we loved took a back seat and the daily grind of political tasks and faction requirement's took its toll on both of us. Proud of what we achieved, we both decided to hand the control of Sirius Mining back over to Sirius Corp. It was time for us to enjoy the galaxy once more, Free from commitment and the shackles of running a small faction. Cmdr Nomad6060 and i find ourselves free. Almost feels like we have graduated from flight school once again, except this time we are that little bit older, wiser and experienced! SILC Industries are back in business, Explorers, miners, guns for hire, this time round the Galaxy really is our oyster.