Crayterian Fleet Database Entry #C-1752 Wrote:

Name: Shawn "Hunter" Stewart
Age: 27
Birthplace: Rostock Station, Omega-15 System.
Biography: Shawn "Hunter" Stewart was born in the infirmary on Rocstock Station in the Omega-15 system. His birth parents, Michael and Sheila Stewart were crewed aboard the Universal Shipping Transport, USI Newport, transporting Diamonds to Planet Denver, Colorado System. Shortly after undocking the USI Newport came under fire from Red Hessian pirates. After breaching the bulkhead, the Red Hessians boarded the USI Newport, slaughtered the crew and began to transfer the cargo to their vessels. One of the Red Hessian pilots, a female named Adala Klara, who had been rendered sterile from exposure to solar radiation, took the infanant Stewart from the transport and adopted him as her own. Adala loved Shawn as her own son and often took him along with her in the cockpit of her Odin, teaching him to operate the vessel.

At age 8, Shawn was accompanying his adopted mother on a small, coordinated raid on a cargo transport in the Omega-3 system. Unknown to the Red Hessian pilots, this particular transport was being used as bait in a Bounty Hunter operation. When the Red Hessians attacked they were ambushed by the Bounty Hunters. Adala's Odin suffered heavy damage during the fight and primary systems had been disabled. Adala, herself, was killed when the primary electrical systems overloaded and electrocuted her. Left alone in the dead fighter, with tears in his eyes, Shawn pulled his adopted mother's corpse from the pilot's seat and activated the emergency backup systems and began to pilot the damaged fighter, to the nearby Solarius Station.

The Bounty Hunters, overjoyed at the success of the operation, went immediately to Solarius Station to celebrate their victory. A few short hours after docking, however, the stations alarms began to ring and announced an incoming single fighter with a Red Hession IFF. The Bounty Hunters, unsure of what to expect from a single fighter, scrambled their fighters to investigate. After launching, they intercepted the damaged Odin and noticed the young boy piloting it. Feeling a mixture of shame and regret at orphaning this young boy the Bounty Hunter squadron piloted him into dock and adopted him as their unofficial mascot and even allowed him to pilot one of their training Piranha's on some of the less dangerous missions. On most of the missions that he flew on, he consistently showed incredible adeptness at piloting as well as an almost natural ability for developing tactics on the fly. It is during this time the earned the callsign Hunter.

At age 17, the Bounty Hunter squadron which had adopted him was disbanded after several of their pilots were killed in an unsuccessful raid on a small pirate operation in the Dresden system. On his own, with only his Piranha fighter and a few credits in his wallet. Hunter wandered the Border Worlds for a place to call home. He never found a home but he did find a lucrative business venture smuggling contraband through the Border Worlds. After almost a decade of running Cardamine, Artifacts and whatever else he could stuff into the nooks and crannies of his hold, he finally managed to get a half decent freighter. With a new Dromedary, a cargo hold full of contraband and a wallet full of credits, Hunter felt he was ready to finally leave the Border Worlds. This was going to be his last run before he quit this life and became an honest trader.

On what had become a routine smuggling run to the Roussillon system, Hunter encountered a Liberty Police checkpoint at the Jump Gate to the Cortez system. Deciding to make a break for it instead of forfeiting his cargo or worse, he broke from the trade lane and engaged his cruise engines hoping to make it to the nearby jump hole to Cortez. The LPI gave chase. After just barely beating the LPI to the jump hole, he jumped into the Cortez and managed to lose them in the Paloma Ice Cloud. Deciding against the trade lanes, he decided to go through the Border Worlds. No sooner had he jumped into the Coronado system when he encountered what appeared to be Rheinland fighters. Without even so much as a word they opened fire on his freighter, crippling it. If not for the reinforced hull plating, he had installed his ship surely would have been destroyed. And without ever saying a word his attackers left as quickly as they had appeared. With his hull cracked, engines disabled, primary and backup systems down and what minimal air he had left leaking out into space, he donned his only EVA suit and with a boken arm, several cracked ribs and what felt like a major concussion he rewired everything in his ship from the engine to the weapons to the life support into his emergency transponder hoping someone, somewhere would come to his aid.

After what seemed like years of waiting, a Colonial patrol found the wreckage of his freighter and took him to Pecos to receive medical care for his injuries. After his recovery, he spent some time on Pecos. The people here looked like life had beaten them down, took their wallet, shoes, shirt and pants and left them in the gutter to die but yet all of them here had a look in their eyes that Hunter had known all his life, Hope and a fierce determination to survive. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was home among his brothers.

Relevant Experience: I've been flying fighters since I was old enough to sit up and hold a stick.

Your reasons for applying to the Military: This place feels like home to me and the people here feel like family. I want to do what I can for them.