So I was brought up on Lave station. Although born on Warinus, my father worked at the station so that’s where the family were. Luckily as he was the dock controller, we have a good standard of living which included a normal gravity home unit.
Other advantages were for me as a youngster to see all the comings and goings at the station. This included ships from the Lave Navy. Although small, there were some impressive craft.
Having family connections got me flying at quite a young age and not just in my father’s runabout. Once qualified I was able to carry out security sweeps in the stations complement of security craft. Initially, this was obviously a Sidewinder however I flew an F63 Condor for several months. However I was always hankering to fly the Viper MK3. The station had two, but these were flown by the flight leads.
What I did not know was that my father had been searching for a Viper for me. On my 21st birthday I was taken to our hangar to see a “something”, from my father. In the hangar there were several crates of parts and what looked like a Viper however it was not sat on its landing gear and lay at an odd angle.
My father had managed, via his numerous connections, to find me a Viper of my own, but Dad being Dad, it was not just a commercial Viper. This was and ex-military fighter. Much of its systems had been removed, however the space frame, distributor and advanced thrusters were still in place. An absolute gem, but in quite a state. Registering the ship with the pilot’s federation was a little interesting however Dad managed it, due in no small part to the extensive additional parts to make it flyable. It took eight months, but we finally got it ready. Some of the best times of my life were working on that ship with my father. This is how I got to be a commander.