The Journey to Awesomeness (Story of Rex Hammond)

Have you ever woke up and realized you aren't going anywhere but then something happens that gives you that one chance to make yourself into what you've always wanted? Well that happened to me yesterday. My name is Rex Hammond and I've called Area 18 home for as long as I can remember.

I never knew my parents. All i know is they were killed in a Vanduul raid which set me up on this crappy existence. I'm 24 now and even though I live on a planet that is comprised of all commerce I have never been able to exist as anything more than a cog in multiple small machines, "Do you want any hot sauce with that burrito?".

My life, unbeknownst to me, changed when I got a random message on my mobiglass about a year ago from a guy on Hurston that claimed he was my grandfather. How he found me or how he knew I was his grandkid still doesn't make sense. Supposedly my dad was his only kid and after his Vanduul murder he just disappeared into the wilderness and hid from life. Eventually we started communicating more and it was nice to have someone sort of watching over me. He got me to start to dream again about what I wanted to do and, even though that was a longshot to happen, he never told me it was impossible. He shared tons of stories and shared some of his life experiences. Sadly, just about a week ago he didn't reach out and eventually one of his close friends messaged me that he had passed away in his sleep. Back to my crappy existence.

Today I got a little unexpected surprise when I got a message from a lawyer telling me I had to meet with him immediately. 'Great, what did I do now?' was all I was thinking. Since I had just left one of a long line of crappy jobs and didn't want to deal with this issue I just decided to get it over with and headed straight to the office listed on the message. i guess I was hoping that at a lawyer's office there may be some snacks or something for people coming into the office and at least tonight I wouldn't have to get any food from one of the vendors. Don't make a lot of money in the jobs I was in.

What i experienced when I arrived at the office was absolutely not what I had prepared myself for. The secretary was polite and nice to me. Even offered my a Cruz Lux. She showed me into a small conference room and told me to relax and the lawyer would be in shortly. It was a decent conference room, not really fancy but functional, just like everything on Arccorp. After about 10 minutes an elderly gentlemen walks in and quickly introduced himself as Tom Slattery and he was handling the affairs of Alexander Mason, my late grandfather. I immediately started saying that I had just found out about him just over a year ago and I didn't believe it was fair that I had to take care of his debts. Mr. Slattery laughed a little and said I didn't have to worry about it. While Mr. Mason wasn't wealthy he wasn't destitute. In fact, since I was the only surviving relative my grandpa was aware of he thought about giving me a chance to make all my dreams come true like we talked about. In his will he gifted me his personal Aurora MR, set me up with a Regen account so I don't have to be scared of dying on my journeys and, after all the taxes, I had 25K aUEC left.

Once Mr. Slattery realized I was coming out of the shock of the news, he said "Congratulations Mr. Hammond. Few people ever get a chance like this. Your grandfather wanted me to tell you that finding you and getting to know you over the last year was the best thing that ever happened to him. He thought of you as the son he lost and hopes this small gift can be the start of you making a new path in life for yourself."

I was still in shock and couldn't stop smiling or giggling like a crazy guy from this unexpected news. The lawyer shook my hand and wished me the best. He also told me the ship was already waiting in the hangar and if I checked my balance I would see that the 25K was already deposited. Needless to say, as soon as I was in the hallway and no one was paying attention I opened my mobiglass and just like the lawyer said there was the 25,000 aUEC and an Aurora MR listed in my hangar.

All I could think of is was I got some money so let's go get some stuff! As I was walking toward Cubby Blasters just ready to throw down some money and get all the cool gear, I remembered some of the stories or tidbits of wisdom grandpa shared in his gruff way. "Don't be an idiot, don't spend money on something if you can get it for free." He would say that whenever my dreams were less about accomplishing something and just focusing on buying something to look cool.

Thinking about that made me a little sad because I had lost that one person that was really looking out for me but it made me stop and decide to take a moment and really think about what I want and not to let this opportunity go to waste. Everyone knows that one person that falls into money and when you see them a year later they have some memories but they don't have anything to show for the money. So with a little reprieve from my need to buy something immediately I took a minute and headed to the G-Loc bar.

I was normally left alone when I went to G-Loc because the owner, Lev Crronenberg, knew about my parents dying at the hands of the Vanduul and kind of felt sorry for me. He didn't want the responsibility of watching over me but he was always searching for that next story he could laugh about with his buddies and he always thought I would eventually be something and he would joke that he wanted to be able to say, 'I knew him when . . .'. The reality is I know he really didn't care about me the same as my grandpa since I heard him talk about a lot of the new people that came through and that he got along with and how he wanted to be able to say 'I knew them when'.

As I grabbed a seat in a booth off to the side in the nearly empty bar nursing my drink, I just asked myself a simple question, 'How do you make money?' Being an employee really messes with your mind. You stop dreaming and start to just exist. I've been given the chance to start over and with my grandpa allowing me to dream a little bit I thought I may have some ways to make some money but we'll have to try it out and be safe so I don't lose all my money trying to buy Quantainium or something really risky. Heck I wouldn't know where or if you could actually buy that stuff and if I went somewhere risky I might end up losing my money and just being dead.

Well as far as I am aware from just talking to people there are a couple ways to make money, I can haul stuff from point A to B. Challenge is the Aurora doesn't have a ton of space and I don't even know if it would be enough to impress Covalex enough to let me be a contractor for them. Pay would be good and relatively safe but you have to be able to break in and complete those contracts. I have heard that mining and scavenging can be profitable but there are ships meant for that and last time I checked they cost more than 25K. Even if I tried to use a rental company that was still too expensive. Maybe later. I could make some money off of delivery of packages which should be safe and with my small, fast Aurora, that is a legitimate option. Not sexy but I could make some money that way. The last couple were bounty hunting missions and mercenary missions. I was definitely leaning that way. Not necessarily smart since there is a danger of dying but maybe that I was an owner of a new Regen account I wasn't as scared to take that chance and coming from a life of just surviving and listening to some of the stories my grandpa shared I knew this at least was the way I was going to start. So which avenue should I take. Bounty hunting could make some quick money but with the Aurora, which is technically a fighter, it would be challenging. When you think about it you are hunting someone that doesn't want to be captured. They are going to try to improve their ship and just blow me out of the sky. Maybe once I can buy better weapons and components that may be a legitimate option but 25K isn't going to go far. Plus do I really want to start exploring the entire verse when I am just starting out? The last option was running some mercenary missions for Arccorp. Nothing like working for the Man but this could allow me to stay away from ship to ship combat and allow me to use the guns on my ship to be sure the area is clear before I try to clear the bad guys out of the site. This fit grandpa's words of wisdom not to waste money since I can use the Aurora guns to kill the bad guys easily and then after they are gone I can safely land and search through what they had on them and use their gear to get ready to go clear out the rest. So technically the only thing I will need is a new helmet to protect me from the environment and the guts to go make it happen. I think the mercenary may be the only way I should go to get some decent money, get some gear for free and satisfy that itch to have an exciting life so I can share stories when I am old like my grandpa and Lev always did.

As I settled on my initial career path another saying from grandpa came to mind. "History is made by the doers not the talkers." So I guess I just have to get out there and make some stories I guess. Since my memory sucks I guess I can just be methodically about it and keep a little journal. Maybe when I am eventually successful someone can take my journal and make it into a best seller, "Rex Hammond: The True and Unbelievable Awesome Story Of His Life". Has a good ring to it, I thought with a sly grin.

Well every journey needs a starting point so I got up, paid my bill and headed to Cubby Blaster to get a basic helmet and see what was out there in the Arccorp security realm. As I checked my mobiglass I found a mission to defend a site for 36K and selected it.