Aren Seiker, born in the slums of Planet Manhattan, he had endured many hardships in life. Ever since he can remember there was a lot of violence and discrimination in his family, not ending there though. He was born in a small family of four people, his parents, his sister, and him as the final and youngest member. His parents were not the caring kind, they were always arguing, then fighting, with his mother always ending up hurt from it. She always took it out on him for everything, because she blames Aren for them living in misery, it all started when Marlene was born, like the usual family, new debts appears, more problems and in the end, they never planned their life properly; Aren was born when his sister was just 8 years old, he was born in an enviroment full of violence, and he grew up in such. But that is not the end of its childhood...
He learned how to fight in the streets while being picked up by other elder boys of the "hood", how they called the place where he lived, with his sister always coming to save him, that being the reason why he was always bullied, adding up to him being a "cry-baby", being called names and telling him he had a "sister complex". He then started to defend himself slowly although coming back home with bruises and scars, he was slowly becoming a man...!
The years passed and things at home became worse than before, Aren's mother died of a serious illness, after her death things at home became calmer, but Aren's father was more unstable, blaming himself for her death reminding himself of all the times they fought and everytime he hurted her, he stoped going to work, they couldn't pay for Marlene's university and she had to stay home doing chores and house-keeping while also looking after her father. While now out of highschool for the same reason, Aren had to go out and find a job to bring food to the table, doing whatever he could to get a few credits, even stealing from people at the top side of Manhattan. Getting caught at least 5 times in his life, he had to spent days and weeks trapped in the Manhattan Liberty Police Station, Marlene was not surprised anymore when he came back days later at home.
18 Years old and Aren was finally old enough to work properly. One day as he came back from his now honest job in the small waste disposal company in Manhattan, in a project for cleaning the slums, he was happy to anounce to his sister and father that he got a decent job and they are awarding him with a shuttle from the company, and that he and his family had to move to the farside of the planet. So as he was coming back with a big smile on his face he found out his dad was finally off he rails. As he heard screams coming from his house, he sneaked inside and found his father abusing of his sister Marlene. But Aren was still the same, he never changed, the same boy that grew up in the slums, fighting for survival, stealing, and doing whatever he could to protect the only family member he had, that cared for him deeply. His sister. Something came inside Aren, an impulse of rage, or perhaps a killer instinct. While both of them didn't notice Aren's arrival at home, he went to the kitchen to get a knife, and stabed his father many times on the back, Marlene and Aren were both covered in his blood, but his face didn't show any expression.
Aren knew what he did, yet he did not feel any remorse or guilt, Marlene was scared, even though it was too late to save her from the abuse, she was terrified by her brother, so much she forgot the things her father was forcing her into, even so, was not enough to keep her away from her little brother, as he soon took Marlene and everything he could... and escaped Manhattan with the ship from the company. They were both scared, they didn't had launch codes for leaving the planet, so Aren stole them, using his skills at hacking small neural net devices for stealing credits, he took ilegally the ones on the company shuttle. And even so they still didn't had jump access to the jumpgates outside of New York. Avoiding any police patrol they headed far from the planet, Aren, inexperienced in space he just cruised away behind the planet... where the patrols were less efficient, or numeric.
Finally cruising into the debris field behind Manhattan, he arrived to an station called "Rochester", a Junker base hidden not so deep inside the debris field, so they decided to settle there. They were silent for the whole trip, they did not look at each other... nor they talked about anything, not even a single word was spoken even after they arrived, aside from Aren asking for a place to stay in the junker station. A free room was given for both, altough cheap, it lacked any fanciness, and Aren still didn't have the money to pay for the room... at least not enough.
Marlene was not thraumatized, she was just thinking about what happened, she was confused, she didn't know what to say or even do. They were murderers and fugitives to the law. Although she did not kill her father, she was there, she did not try to stop her brother, and she escaped with him without objection. She considered herself one.
Several weeks passed, her brother started doing jobs for the junkers, Aren got rid of the ship, and he was using a cheap one he bought from the junkers, a scrapper, after having a few deals. Aren during the hours of work he had on the debris field, he found a jumphole to the Colorado System, seeking this oportunity he did not hessitate and he went and grabed his sister and sailed to Colorado. But this was just another step into the mouth of the Lion.
The same day he found the jumphole, he went back to Rochester and got his sister and the last few things they had with them, then headed to the jumphole, although that... Liberty never forget its criminals, at the jumphole they were ambushed by Liberty Security Force agents.
"This is the Liberty Security Force! under the laws of Liberty, you are to be put under arrest! cut your engines or you will be destroyed!"
They took long enough to realize where this two small criminals were, but the LSF has the resources, and they found this once in a lifetime chance to get them before they fell in the wrong hands and/or lost them forever!
Aren was shaking, Marlene was speechless and she was only moving Aren's shoulders in an attempt to make him do something. But Aren did what many wouldn't do in front of the LSF. He activated the Jumphole and he jumped away from the New York system!
"w-we.. we made it!?"
Aren thought out loud, but at the other side a patrol of Xenos was heading their way, Aren's eyes opened wide and he couldn't believe his bad luck.
"Look here, we found a small lone junker! what should we do about this one? shall we let him go?"
They obviously didn't, they took him prisoner and towed his ship to their nearby base, but soon the LSF appeared from the Jumphole and saw the situation. The xenos didn't care, they just ketp heading towards their base. Aren now with hope that the LSF will engage and capture them, or probably escape during the fight, but the LSF turned their tails and went straight to the lanes connecting the Jumpgate and Pueblo station.
Aren's hopes shattered and they were both being towed as prisoners for pirates, not even the slight hacking skills that Aren adquired during the escape from Manhattan were gonna save him.
At the station, they were both sent to cells, although both had different cells, they were next to each other! they spent 30 days trapped in the Xeno's base that they finally forgot they murdered their father, something that seemed impossible. A month already and a Xeno decided to become playful, so he went and took Marlene with him, she tried to force her way out but couldn't agaisn't the man's strenght. Aren shouting, taunting, and throwing things around the cell... but nobody answered, weeks later, feeling forgotten by the Xenos themselves, who barely came to visit, only for the meals, which by the way were barely on time. He never saw his sister again, all that was left was her bracelet that fell from her hand while she was trying to escape from the Xeno. Inside that cell, without his sister, he felt weak... he felt abandoned, thinking how could has it been if he handled the situation of his father differently. He cried, he kept shouting, punching the walls, with his now messed up knuckles of how much he has done the same for days.
He grew a hate for Xenos, and Liberty officials alike, childishly blaming how he lived in the slums, his mother's dead, and the final dissapearance of his sister. With an evergrowing hate, and a last breath, he attempted to escape, using the guards to boost his escape. Already learned the patern of when they come give him his food and replenish his water. He kept a whole week creating a knife like pipe, after, he improvised like ranting, was breaking some old pipes beside his bed. He laid down to "sleep" and waited for his meal, with the pipe on his chest, while facing the wall, he readied up until the guard put his food on the table.
"Against the wall, and don't move"
The guard confirmed even though he saw he was asleep. And as he aproached the table, Aren, with ice in his veins jumped at the guard and stabbed him on the throat! Silently killing him.
He then took the keys, and the blaster, so then he liberated a few other junker prisoners that the Xenos had, while also going to pick up the bracelet that was left from his sister. With cooperation and Aren's will to kill, they managed to sneak to the hangar and take a ship to escape, but the hangar was locked. Someone had to go activate it, Aren decided to go, since there was some coding to do on the terminal. When he arrived, he managed to override the security system of the base with a few attempts, rendering the base vulnerable from the outside. And then he unlocked the hangar... arriving back at the hangar, Aren shot on the head all the three prisoners that helped him out, there was only one ship available on the deck. And he was not gonna miss this chance. He did not bother on checking if his sister was still on the station. He believed that the guy might have took her somewhere else, hence why she didn't came back, that or either she was killed.
Although that, he gave up hope, saying that hope was a miserable way of clinging into what you cannot obtain, and that hope was for the weak who couldn't do things for themselves. So he gave his sister for dead. Finally escaping the station he headed with an IFFed xeno ship away from Colorado, using the Nav-map on the ship and the jump codes for each jumphole on the discovered systems.
Without thinking, he headed straight to Barrier-gate station, avoiding police and navy alike. Barrier-gate, a place where he could lay low and not call any unwanted attention. But his story didn't end there...
Aren was finally left alone, in a rented room on Barrier gate, with no one at his side... several weeks has passed and he tried to forget everything, even though he still has the same cold and uninterested expression. Thought of joining the outcasts, to start smuggling cardamine... but something was keeping him, was it Liberty? was it everything he went through in Liberty? or the thought that his sister may still be alive?
A question even he could not answer himself. He started learning about the neural-net, he got himself his own portable PDA of the neural-net. He even registered himself... but he thought about it for a long time, how? and when he finally decided to do it... he registered himself with the name: Sphinx.
Using his skills at hacking devices, he modified his own's to a more secure version of it. Nobody now could trace his location. This called the attention of the Lane hackers, which were and are also looking for good people to join their cause, and prioritize the high tech hackers and engineers out there for recruitment. But they never aproached Aren, perhaps they were leaving him for some kind of testing period or something. But referring to groups, while Aren was looking for clues of his sister, he found out, somehow... about the "Hellfire Legion" which hated the Navy, hate for the navy, something he developed after the incident with the LSF, or at least with every official... they both had that in common. He thought of joining, or tagging along. But he was still yet to find them, rather than sending a comm to them, which was still the same, as he couldn't find their Neural-net communication coords, and he was too tired to figure it out. And another day ends for, yet another crippled soul in Sirius.
Aren has barely noticed but he is clinging to the thing he now hates the most, "hope", the thought of searching for his sister, which he gave for dead, means he is clinging into hope that she "might" still be alive. Which also gave him to hate himself for it, and slowly left him insane. While laying on his bed, staring at the bracelet belonging to his sister, it was the only reminder of the pure hate for the ones who took his sister, and so then for the ones who couldn't help them when they could have. And finally himself, for dragging his sister into the worst experience ever.
On Barrier Gate, he met a child, an orphan which got friendly with him after aproaching Aren to talk to him.
"Hey, why do you look so sad?"
The kid asked Aren while he was sitting on one of the tables at the bar.
"Should a kid like you, be in a place like this?"
Aren asked him. The kid was looking confused and he then sat besides Aren and told him
"But... my mentor runs this place, he lets me go around it if I don't bother too much... Am I bothering you mister?"
Aren told just shaked his head in an attempt to say no to his question. While also answering him the first question the kid ever asked him.
"Sad? who knows... I'm not even sure myself"
As their conversation flew with the time the kid got familiar with Aren, and time passed for both of them on the station, Aren doing odd jobs here and there to pay for his room, which was cheap at that moment.
Three years later, Aren's birthday was a lonely one, he didn't even told the kid when was his birthday. Aren was now becoming a man, 21 years old. And learned a lot of space during his stay on Barrier Gate. On the same day, he found out that the kid's mentor, the bar owner, was running a caravan of ships for artifact smuggling. The kid went on his first trip to space with the man, who was not the owner of said bar anymore. So the next day, Aren found out that the caravan was stopped by Bretonian authorities, the news said the caravan didn't stopped in an attempt to escape, and was then destroyed. When Aren found out, his heart was broken, the only person he could talk to anymore, was now dead, for a simple mistake of life. That led him to think about his own mistakes, what could have been of his life if he hadn't killed his father? or took his sister with him.. or even given up to the LSF when he had the chance.
Aren's mind was slowly falling from depression, into depravity. The hate for the officials of all houses were corrupted he says, that they should all be dead. Without them there would be no pirates, or no civil violence, of course childishly thinking. Without thinking rationally he decided to take action finally, and went to hook up with the Hellfire Legion.
But his stay wasn't for too long. He joined the secondary fleet of the Legion, and he did what he most wanted, kill the Navy. Skilled now on his fighter, he decided to take more drastic ways to destroy the navy. Aren's depravity was too high now, instead of doing "Justice" to the authorities, he was playing with them, toying even. Capturing civilians and using them as hostages just to attract the navy or police. Even bombing places, or even civilian ships, without caring for their lifes.
Aren was doing more than the Hellfire Legion would allow him to, so the Legion was tired of him and his trangressions, he was hunted down by them. Aren soon found out that the Legion wasn't for him, they were too "soft", too weak, and thats why they would never succeed agains't Liberty. He escaped on his Prosecutor before the search parties would ever find him, and went directly where he left his old ship, Barrier Gate. With a desperate attempt to escape the Legion, he finally abandoned his prosecutor and took on his old ship, trampled the IFF to neutrality with the outcasts and installed new engines. He then ran to Tau-23, where there was an outcast base.. Cali, he headed there and rested, making up his mind on what to do next. So then he could come back to Liberty fresh, and ready to strike.
And now, Aren's demise would be put to a stop, as he finally reached the peak of insanity. And a new monster was born.
In honor to the kid that he met at barrier gate, Aren's personality took a different change, although he was the "punk" kind of guy, so he would always push aside the ones looking at him directly or bothering him when he was busy, he had this playful attitude towards his enemies, or in public. Always cheerful even on the worst situations, playing games with the authorities and toying with them on the worst way possible, using civilians at his own will, "pirating" the lanes with hopes that a naval or police would come "to the rescue", with the mosts absurd demands a pirate would put. Publicly insulting the goverment and navals in the most playful way, creating new games or using riddles to "play" with the authorities.
Aren was at the peak of insanity, with the obsession that all authorities of all houses were corrupt and had to be killed and obliberated, he didn't consider himself a hero, he publicly say he is a "Terrorist", something that Liberty needed. Loving alcohol, and hating Liberty Ale to the fullest. Always calm on the act, never drunk or drugged, he would always be right on his mind to do things his way, never messing up, using his skills at terminals and coding, and making bombs with the least expected ingredients ever, and using them on public places where officials usually hang out. He would also hate those who get in his way with the local authorities, freelancers, hunters, Legionaries, and other pirates or enemies of the state that would tell him to bug off, or more. And even more, with the Xenos, who trampled his life for the little mistake of working honestly for the junkers!
Back to Liberty with a single fighter he bought from the outcast, and only with 5,000,000 millions credits, hes ready to strike back again!
But now the Legion also never forgets its mistakes... and one of them was Sphinx. Now that hes out in the light again... his name resonates around alot... even in bounty boards for a 'nice' considerable sum. The Legion are onto him, and when they see him, they will 'act accordingly'
"A terrorist that hates terrorists... *he chuckles with fierce enjoyment.* how ironic!!!
-Aren, after becoming Sphinx, and while remembering his sister.