Coming from an unusual upbringing, it is a mystery how he managed to make his way from his birthplace of planet New Berlin, all the way across the sector to the remote outcast homeworld.
His grandfather, Arturo Sudrossa, was a test pilot for the outcast navy who had worked alongside chief engineer Diego Rojas, testing and designing the next generation of maltese fighter ships. Unfortunately, his spouse met an untimely death shortly after childbirth, leaving him to care for his daughter Guliana all by himself. As a military man, he faced incredible difficulty raising her, as he was bound by tough active duty schedules. When she grew old enough to attend school, Arturo was faced with a new problem – his daughter showed great interest for medicine, and the best medics in the outcast nation have all studied abroad to acquire their skills. After asking his long time friend Diego for advice, he decided to send Guliana to medical school in Rheinland, as it was close to the Sigma systems where he was often sent to work. All the paperwork was prepared in Kreuzberg, he paid a friendly junker family to look after his kid as guardians and came to visit from time to time whenever he could. But as is often the case in the military, one day he simply didn’t show up to a meeting and Guliana’s foster parents decided to adopt her.
After graduation from medical, she married a Rheinlander, Uli Eickmeyer whom she had fallen in love with, and a few years later, gave birth to Kadego – her only child. The boy grew up with his mother’s stories about his outcast heritage and his grandfather’s military background. After reaching the age of majority, his parents divorced due to irreconcilable differences. This resulted in Kadego changing his last name from Eickmeyer to Sudrossa, his mother’s family name. After graduating the pilot academy, Kadego landed a job as a hired cargo pilot, working for the junkers.
He was running contraband from Rheinland into Liberty and it didn’t take long for him to get in trouble with the law. Fortunately, he managed to bribe the police patrol officer who caught him, thus enabling him to reach Rochester Base in New York, where he immediately became popular among the Outcasts with his daring and hotheaded nature. Not long after that, he became familiar with the business of cardamine trafficking, running small shipments with a civilian freighter.
One very fateful day on planet Malta, young Kadego got to meet his grandfather’s old friend, Diego Rojas. It was entirely by chance, during a boasting parade in a bar, where he mentioned his grandpa’s name and Diego was sitting close by. Thinking the young man was making fun of him, Diego hit the loudmouth with a right uppercut, only to find out later that this was indeed his old friend Arturo Sudrossa’s grandson. From that moment on, the two men developed a close relationship, with Diego becoming something like a grandfather figure.
After a couple of close-call incidents with failed contraband shipments, Kadego decided to lay low for a while and unbeknownst to Diego, signed up as a security patrol pilot for a remote outcast installation, which was later revealed to be Torino Base in the gallic border system of Lorraine. He quickly distinguished himself as a capable fighter pilot and got promoted to the rank Captain, which enabled him to attend some of the mission meetings for the base’s security teams. The last such meeting was held at planet Malta, where captain Kadego proposed a radical solution to the recent security concerns. It is this idea that put him on the list for a top secret operation, codenamed “Sombra Asunto” (meaning shady business in Hispanic).
The outcast nation is famous for a lot of things, but the most incredible feat they have achieved lies in their cardamine induced life longevity. Normally, people at age 67 would seriously consider a retirement in a quiet place, or with the rest of their family, raising grandchildren and enjoying their golden age.
But not this guy, this is not something he would even consider. A man of action, powerful leadership skill, a no-nonsense approach and incredible raw stamina, this is what Diego Rojas has been known for all his life. Very early on, in his student years, he showed great skill in engineering, became directly involved in the design and testing of new craft and the maltese navy was quick to recruit him as a designer. There, he met naval test pilot Arturo Sudrossa – another powerful character, who would prove invaluable in Diego’s tests and both played a significant role in the development of the new CQH outcast shipline, especially the very heavy fighter model – the Carabela.
Both men were best friends, very close with each other’s families – Diego’s son Mateo Rojas grew up together with Arturo Sudrossa’s daughter, Guliana. Later on, Diego became a grandfather to Alonzo Rojas, a true protégé in engineering and also his current apprentice assistant, working in the Bastia Shipyard.
Although quite an adept pilot himself, Diego had never been assigned to fight – his technical knowledge and scientific contribution was so great, it would be a catastrophe if he ever got captured by malevolent factions. But as a member of the maltese navy, he was awarded the rank of Major, which was not only due to his technical achievements, but also to give him access to the classified paperwork required in order to work on some secret projects.
Years later, after the disappearance of his dear old friend Arturo Sudrossa, the newly appointed shipyard director Rojas decided to give up his military rank, as a way to honor him. Because Arturo was the only one he knew in the navy, who had remained sincere, kept away from the power struggle and didn’t buy into keeping secrets from his closest people.
It was not until the year of 816 that Diego met his lost friend’s grandson, Kadego Sudrossa. He remembered Kadego’s mother, whom he had seen when she was little and after catching up with the family’s history, he decided to bring both families together again. Now, aside from his shipyard crew, director Rojas has the uneasy task of keeping both his own grandson Alonzo and Kadego out of trouble and on the right track – something that maybe only he alone could achieve.
There are rarely people in the maltese navy, who can be classified as an enigma, besides the mysterious organization “The Ghosts of Razgriz”. And yet, when an ex-major named Diego Rojas tried to pull out information about comandante Socorro Pelaez from the naval database, he hit the most solid obstacle one could ever come across – the big red letters CLASSIFIED, on everything in the short profile, except the name, the birthdate and the reputation.
Lacking any written credentials about his past, with all current data classified at the maximum level – it became clear to Rojas, if he wanted to find out more about this person, he would need time, elevated security access and a miracle to get that kind of access in the first place. For now, all the tangible information one could glean about Pelaez, was coming from eye witnesses and naval officers, who often whisper about seeing him enter the most restricted places and remaining there for days, before coming back out again.
The people with whom Pelaez was sometimes seen together, were the most high ranking generals and admirals in the MNS and this is what boggles the mind – how can a lowly commander, with a daily desk job, no known combat experience in major conflicts, who never goes out with colleagues after a day’s work... how could he possibly have connections like this…! To further complicate things, he never talks shop to anyone – ever. It’s all business, nobody knows if he has a family of his own or not. Crack a joke in his presence and all you will get is a slight smirk out of him, but not much else. And this is something that he is known for – that trademark smirk, the abundance of hair gel and the absolute lack of any clues as to what he may be doing outside his office duties.
For someone with as much life experience as Diego Rojas, all this could mean one thing… comandante Socorro Pelaez is not a naval officer. He is so far beyond that, it was dangerous to even think about it, not to mention asking about it. He must be an agent of some sort, with his reputation sheet giving strong evidence of that. An unrestricted naval access, combined with an unremarkable slightly over-the-middle civilian reputation that nobody will pay any attention to – that is the ideal place to become invisible to people.
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