I am, or should I say was, the only son of a miner family. I was born on "The Crypt" in the Lycanthrope system.

It wasn't bad as far as I remember. I was about 7 when my father got his break. Some big shots son from the Carpe Noctem company was lost whilst inspecting a mine and they called my father in to help search for him. The big shot was so impressed with the detailed maps that my father had made of the mines that he 'made a few calls' and the next we knew we were packing up and moving to Pytheas, my old man was to lecture at the Hipparque - Cartographers' University.

I wouldn't say life was great after that, sure it was no mining colony but to the other kids, and probably their parents, in the station I was a filthy no good 'Pitrat'. No one ever said it to my fathers face, he was an exminer who looked like he could have excavated the ore with his shovel like bare hands after all, but lets just say that you could find us at any parties or gatherings we were 'welcome to attend' mostly sitting at the edge of the main throng.

Mum and dad always wanted me to do well at school but I was never any good at the academic stuff. More often than not they'd find me down the pads with a wrench in my hands or at the security offices with blood stained knuckles and an irritate professors son.

When I turned of age I joined the Mobious Colonial Republic Navy (MCRN) and I blazed across the galaxy fighting battles and killing wastrels by the wayside, well if you asked my dear old mum or dad that's what they'd tell you. Reality is I was nothing more than a 'Grease Monkey'. Slaving day by day patching up the fighters that came into the bays or fixing up the fighters that the incompetent pilots smashed into the mailslot and slammed down on the pads. An attitude like mine got me into quite a few scraps in the bars with the pilots and I was barred from quite a few establishments.

It was whilst we were docked at Ising Vision that I managed to blag my way into 'Deckards'. A one Cmdr Bad Karma said if I didn't cause trouble I could stay until my ship undocked. He was a man of his word so I decided to honour his wishes. I spend the next 3 days listening to the drunken rantings and bickering of 'Bob' and 'Dmitri' as well as the stories from the 'Bandits' as they returned from their various sorties. After my short stay I thanked my hosts and left to rejoin my ship.

It was to be another 4 months before I could leave the MCRN and buy myself a cheap, damaged but spaceworthy Sidewinder. I kept her together doing various jobs for various factions as I traveled back to the Neto system. I enrolled as a rookie in the Pixel Bandits Security Force.

Since joining the PBSF I have never been happier, the pilots here are an odd bunch but every man jack of them will watch their wingmans back.

Fly safe Cmdrs 07