Eventually he decided to start branching out, not due to the stories of ruthless pirates murdering new commanders, he had no encounters like that despite meeting many other commanders there. He decided to branch out because for the first time Cleave Hub, infact the entire system, didn't have what he was looking for.
After searching Galnet Chris had discovered a system not too far from him with a plentiful choice of ships & modules. "A poor man's Shinatra" some called it, (which made no sense at all considering everything at Jamerson Memorial is at a 10% discount). Upon docking and taking a look around, Chris found what he had been searching for; a new powerplant for his Type-6.
Still hanging around in Eravate, Chris would revisit Carener whenever he intended to refit or purchase a new ship, up until he wanted something even they didn't have.
When returning to port from a relatively successful mining trip, Chris was surprised to see a massive whale exiting the station. He gazed upon it in awe, never did he know that tourism was such a large industry, he had assumed it was only popular on planets. From that point onward he knew that ship would one day be his.
After another search of Galnet it turned out that Saud Kruger ships were only sold in Alliance systems, which made sense, so he went there. Until then Chris never had a reason to leave federation space, he wondered if things would be different and if so, how much? Upon arriving at the station he was surprised to see much of the same, he was unsure what he had expected, why would things be any different here? The only thing that he really cared about being different was his ability to purchase a Beluga, which didn't change at all since he couldn't afford one. So he settled with a Dolphin instead.
"Why travel space if not to do it in luxury?" was printed across the top of its keycard.
Eager to try out his new ship, Chris went straight to the passenger lounge and took whoever wanted to head in the direction of Carener. The first contract he saw was a simple transport mission paying 1.2 million credits. At the time, that seemed ridiculously high for a 1 jump trip to be paying, the station was only a 2 minute flight away in supercruise too. Was this the start of a new career?
Yes, yes it was as I'm sure you already know from the short bio. Why did I even ask?
After outfitting his shiny new Dolphin with the Saud Kruger exclusive luxury-class cabin, Chris learned a valuable lesson: always check the destination before accepting a contract. Without knowing it he had accepted a mission to Colonia & back, with a 4 week time limit.
With no knowledge of exploration, a semi upgraded ship, no engineering, a fuel scoop, intermediate discovery scanner and 4 (supposedly) famous explorers taking advantage of the luxury cabin, Chris decided to head out. He had no idea if it was even possible to get 22,000ly and back within 4 weeks, so he wanted all the time he could get.
Nothing noteworthy happened on the trip, he arrived back at port 2 weeks later 40 million credits richer, with only half of that being from the mission itself. With all this new found wealth he decided to buy an Orca, then later a Dropship for mining.
This part of his life was fairly mundane, lots of trading, sightseeing adventures & mining.
As a result he decided to try something new, he wanted to know what career choices were out there (only legal ones of course). He tried everything from salvaging to fighting in conflict zones but could never quite stick to one thing for too long, so he set himself a new goal:
To acquire every ship in the galaxy and have a different purpose for each one (with a couple of exceptions)
Eventually Chris had acquired quite the fleet, with ships of all sizes, including the Beluga which he had once only dreamt of. After purchasing it, the ship seemed underwhelming. It was the largest ship in the galaxy yet was incapable of carrying size 7 passenger cabins?
Again, much of the same happened for a while. The most significant thing was perhaps his acquisition of a Federal Corvette, which he sold his Anaconda to purchase, which he had sold his Type-10 to purchase, which he had sold his type-9 to purchase. After realising this, he also bought a new Type-9.
Chris decided he would join a
When working as a "Space tour guide" being neutral was important, atleast that's how Chris saw things. Sure, powers help you make friends, however you also make enemies, something he wanted no part of. It's bad for business after all, "Come aboard, there's only a 40% chance we'll get shot at" just didn't sound good at all to him.
After joining the
While the faction still stands, there is little holding together its members.
Today Chris works alongside a new faction, Redshift Logistics. Primarily he works in the Security & Logistics departments, however also frequently provides insight with regards to effective business strategies, as well as useful tactics regarding combat in smaller ships; something he has become quite passionate about.
Small ships are often overlooked by many commanders, they're usually assumed to be completely impractical in all situations, which simply isn't true. Chris has amassed quite the fleet of small fighters in the recent years, each with a similar, yet distinct purpose & fighting style.
Chris still has a soft spot in his heart for the federation; their ruthless approach to law & order, their subjective views on ethics & rights, as well as their brutally efficient ship designs which don't prioritise style, yet still manage to look better than anything any imperial could come up with...
And despite hostile actions taken against his faction by local federal factions, these beliefs still stand strong. Besides, federals don't care much for who they're firing at, and they certainly don't question why. They just follow orders. Happily shooting at each other if told to (which they frequently are). So how could he hold a grudge? He's just doing what he's always done, following orders. Just like them. Only this time it's by choice.
Federal at heart, independent in mind.