Rebirth

26.2.111

A small cynical voice in the back of my mind asks why I am wasting my time thinking of the past,  I should be re-calibrating the strip miners on my Hulk. I push the voice down I am finding this cathartic.

It seems so long ago now, but I still remember the feeling of awe as I first undocked in my Reaper.

I had no clear idea of what to do. I followed the advice from the university agents and carried out a few missions in Heimatar, but the feelings of not fitting in remained.  Once I had my first proper frigate, a burst class, I forget her name now, I decided to head out and explore the cluster for a while.  I travelled extensively through Amarrian and Minmatar space, mining to pay my way.  I still never settled, never felt at peace.

Then I met Calotriton when passing through Amatar space.  There was spark between us, she too was an orphan, bought up by an Amatar family, she had only recently become a capsuleer and was struggling to find her feet.  To cut a long story short, we fell in love, married, then drifted apart. She become business partners with an Amarrian in Arbaz, I joined White Wolf Enterprises.  We are still married, and still talk but are more friends now than lovers.

WWES is where things turned the corner for me.  For the first time I had a home, and people I could call friends.  All my experiences there have led me to this place.  I went from green recruit to officer to mining manager to director gaining the trust of my fellow wolves.  I made some lasting friends Demo, Ele, Khanid Slayer, the Speranza brothers and above all Vincent Pryce, who I consider the brother I never had.

A part of me obviously doesn't like things going well.  I look now at what I had and wonder if the decision I made was worth the cost.  The CEO, Caine Adamsson (yes the Amarrian who freed me) was never around.  I ran the corp with the support of the directors and officers.  I felt I could do better.  So I took us to war.

The war was short with no great loss of life or material.  I won, and in the process tore the corp apart.  Once everything had settled, things were looking up new recruits were joining, we had a research POS set up, on the whole moral looked up.  Then Vince decided not to return to us,  I don't think his part in the coup sat well with him.  Jan Pieterzoon (one of the old guard) vanished with no word.  Demo left to found his own corp and took most of my active pilots.  I could do nothing to stop the decline.  I had failed.  I turned the corp over to the Directors to decide who to run it and left.

I fought for a while with the 24IC.  But I am not a combat pilot.  I drifted for a time Before seeing an add for Lone Star Joint Venture, a 0.0 mining corp.  This seemed to be the break I needed.  I was accepted and moved out to Branch.  Mining here is lucrative yet risky.  Halada has a good crew and the alliance holds some nice systems.  I have amassed a small fortune, and have certified in a number of new ship classes.

Perhaps the time is right to look to the future....

But for now I'd better get that bloody strip miner working.  There will be hell to pay if I miss my quota......