The following is a transcription of a voice-recorded journal of Seleucous Wright...
My name is Seleucous Wright. There ain't a damned person in Sirius who can pronounce my first name without flaw. Most folks get all balled up when they read it, an end up callin' me Sel. It's really pronounced sel-OOSH-us. I'm stumped as to why my folks called me that in the first place, but I reckon we gotta make best with what we're given. Well... to a point...
I took up flyin' back in 808, when I decided shovelin' dirt on a crummy Texas farm wasn't my callin'. I started out on some simulators, passed the test, and got my license. I got me a startracker and started escortin' some miners but they weren't high payin' folk. Eventually I found some small-time black market arms dealers. I reckon that was a shady crowd to be hangin' around but the money was too good to refuse.
It didn't take long before I got my Kingfisher. There wasn't a more sturdy fighter available on the civilian market. With the heavier ship, I could charge higher rates for my escortin' jobs. I started gettin' regular customers, runnin' between some unlawful bases. It was easy work; the smugglers I tagged along with knew how to avoid police patrols. It was the rogue pirates we had to be on the look out for.
Escortin' is how I met some of my acquaintances... one such acquaintance was a bomber ace, who started takin' my customers. The fella didn't even have a name, everyone just called him "Guilt." Another was a woman named Anna Faye. I reckon things went sour between us when... eh, I'd rather not get into it.
Well, at some time during mid 817, I stumbled upon a recruitment ad for a private military called "DynoXe International." It looked interesting, and had good pay, so I thought it couldn't hurt to try out... turns out Guilt saw the same ad and ended up applyin' as well. Despite all odds, we both ended up in the "Serpent Squadron," under Commander Calvin Soryln.
Those were some good times, in DXI. I polished my skills flyin' in the Crow nebula with the GMG folks and the asteroid fields of the Omegas with the Daumann fighters. I started flyin' solo, huntin' down Corsairs, Sirius Cartel, and some renegade Junker pirates. I might've bagged the most kills in the Squad... which might explain why they promoted me to Commander.
When the director disappeared, things started goin' slow for DynoXe, and I stopped gettin' paid. In the later months of 817, I resigned, and started flyin' solo in my Kingfisher, escorting some high-end lawful traders and taking the odd job here and there.
I think it was the middle of October, when I found a bounty for NTF tagged ships in the Kansas system in Magellan. I hadn't any clue what NTF was nor where Kansas was, but the pay was too good to pass off. I ended up followin' a lone miner through the barrier to a jumphole which lead to the system. I camped out on the Kansas side and waited for a target...
I sat and waited fer a long time. I was startin' to think that t I was wastin' my time. Just before I packed up, one of them NTF came through; a Raven's Talon, callsign "Lysander," ... funny that's the same ship Seido used back in DXI...
I didn't wait long before I called him out... back then my only ambition was for the buck. That was a tough fight, against that pilot. I remember clearly that gut sinking feeling I got when that Starkiller torpedo hit my Kingfisher and shattered armor on its long snout, causing all kinds of smoke to cloud up my sights... after that I was sure to use my disruptor missiles more. Between torpedoes and my mines, the Talon started losing chunks of its armor, till a few of my flashpoints pierced the ship's core... but not before he got the message off to a second NTF to come finish me off. This one was flying a Nyx, callsign Vaym Wyard. This fellar managed to land a torpedo on the left torso of my Kingfisher, causing a severe coolant leak. My ship's core temperature rose with every energy weapon I fired. I thought I was a goner for certain. I reckon I lucked out though... guess it's obvious 'cause I'm still here to tell the story. I landed a mine on some critical components, crippling the Nyx, causing the pilot to eject.
So, with my coolant completely drained and my core temperature at dangerous levels... I decided to pull in my horns, and set course for the Magellan jumphole... but I was intercepted by three more NTF ships. Man, I thought I was in for a rough bruisin'. But their leader, "Tycho," ordered the ships not to engage. He showed me just how ignorant I really was... he told me all about the Neo Terran Front, their goals, and why they were attacking miners in the system. He even brought me to their base of operations in Kansas to get some emergency repairs for my Kingfisher.
I ain't so sure how it happened, but I ended up on good terms with the fellas. I ended up payin' for both ships I destroyed with the money from the Researcher who paid me. It's funny how that works...
I reckon the world ain't got a place for a drifter like me... I reckon that's a good name for me... "the drifter."
In late 817, I flew back to the Sigmas to check up on DynoXe... but Director Seido was still MIA and Calvin Soryln had no interest in taking over in his absence. It was only a matter of time before the GMG terminated DXI's security contract. I asked about Guilt, and found that he had apparently ran off and joined up with a rag-tag bunch of bounty hunters who call themselves the "Enforcing Avengers." I had a feelin' I'd see him again.
I took up a few escorting jobs for some independent miners to pay the bills, while looking for new opportunities in the meantime...