How I Got Here: "Beginnings"
13 Jul 2022Columbuss
Commander Justin Estok. Stardate 13-JUL-3308.This is my first log. I suppose I'm only getting to it now as I never really had time to consider it before. I guess you could say I hit the ground running since leaving the Pilot's Fed and haven't really let up until now. So, I figure, now's as good a time as any to get started. I mean, this could all be Thargoid space tomorrow for all I know. I plan on updating this daily, to share my journey for any who might be interested in hearing it.
I guess all this talk about the end got me thinking about the beginning. It might be why I titled this log the way I did.
I got my start in the Gliese 868 system, taking a courier job with Izumo Heavy Industries. Of course, this is after my childhood on Rhea. Growing up on Rhea wasn't easy. Especially being the son to two blue collar parents who never left the surface. A young man takes what employment he can get and the most successful people in my corner of Harold's Landing were the people who lived outside of the law. If you were going to pursue that life, there was only one man to see. That man was Frank.
Frank Helion ran everything in our neighborhood. My dad would always tell me "they're bad guys, but they're our bad guys." What he meant was, if you had a problem and you couldn't take it to the authorities, you went to see Frank. My particular problem was that I didn't want to spend my life scaping by like my parents did. So, I went to see Frank. He put me to work running numbers and hustling where I could until he taught me to start collecting debts. He made me good with my hands and taught me to use a gun. For the sake of not incriminating myself I wont go into detail, but lets just say I was pretty busy and got alot of practice with both.
As I grew older I knew I wanted to fly. It had always been a dream of mine and I definitely didn't want to end up like my parents. So Frank agreed to foot the bill for my acceptance into the Pilot's Federation on the promise that when I graduated, I'd return to him which I had every intention of doing. That is until about a week before my graduation.
It hit Galnet that a plague had broken in Harold's Landing. I tried to get ahold of my parents with no luck. An acquaintance I'd made through Frank informed me that my parent's had passed from the illness and, so did Frank. I returned home after the lockdown had been lifted to bury my parents. That was something I never thought Id have to do. A short time later I found out Frank's boss, Aldous Crane, was arrested on racketeering charges along with the entire hierarchy of the organization I'd grown up working for. So, with no debt to be repaid, and no where else to go, I set out to find my way in the galaxy.
The Pilot's Fed gets you enough employment to get you started, but that only takes you so far. I had a Sidewinder at this point, which I named The Chelsie Grinn after a girl I fancied when I was younger, and headed for the nearest star system I could find. This is how I ended up at Houssey Terminal and working for Izumo. This was my first step onto a long and dangerous road that would eventually take me from one edge of The Bubble to the other and dump me here, where I sit right now in Gilleken Terminal, Al Mina, many long, hard years later.