The Secrets of a Ghost

[Erzie]

Name: Dr. James Erzie
Occupation: Freelance Defender of Sirius

An Unexpected Start
Born aboard Freeport 5 in 771 A.S. the young boy lived with his single mother, Viktoria Erzie, and her co-worker Dr. Markus Artouras. Bound by their research, travels would commonly move them about the Borderworlds, shipping samples and equipment abroad. At Age 3, James took considerable interest in his mother's work, as she researched for cures for disease and developed better medical procedures. Dr. Artouras, a stand-in father figure for the boy, took care to educate him and teach him the ways of medicine. This was not the Doctor's only strong suit, however, for he was a skillful tactical pilot as well, and James found this more than entertaining. James would find the best ways to persuade Dr. Artouras to fly around asteroids or strange crystal formations around the Freeports, quickly learning with each turn. His mother, in the meantime, would expand her studies, working for the Doctorate she always dreamed of. Nearly completing it when the boy turned 5 years old. She never got her dream...

Agony Beyond Comprehension
James loved flying more than medicine, and was set on spending as much time as possible becoming the best pilot possible, and to teach him even more, his mother decided that for his 5th birthday, she would take him along on her supply run. They ventured into deep space in their freighter, and moved toward Freeport 9. As they ventured through Omicron Gamma, expecting a shortcut, they met an unexpected situation. Typical roughness as the Corsairs are, they made demands his mother could not fulfill. They fired upon them without warning, critically damaging the ship and setting fire to the cabin. In the last moments of desperation, Viktoria held James as tight as she could, firing the escape pod out of the fray before the ship was fired into oblivion. Helpless to the Corsairs, they were picked up and moved to Crete, where James' mother was tried for treasonous acts against the Corsairs. Through unfair trial, they found her guilty on the merit that the types of pharmaceuticals being transported were clearly targeted for Outcast consumption. Forced to watch her execution, James was also found guilty by association, and was forced to work a manual labor position among the rabble of the lower classes.

A Fight for a Chance
Essentially a slave, the boy was forced to work extreme hours in labor far beyond his capability. As the youngest hard labor worker, he was helped by others to survive, at their expense. For 7 years, the boy worked day in and day out, letting each day pass like a nightmare that would never end. This was the way of life until a more cruel option was unveiled. Being charged with mechanical engineering work, as an apprentice, James was forced to work under a cruel master who would beat and scold him for any lapse in ability. They gave the boy 3 years to clean up his act, to which he learned all he could. Or so James thought. Charged with a work order beyond his ability, he worked tirelessly to try and fill it - working for weeks on end to try and please his master. Using all the strength he could muster, he put all of his being into his work - and fell short. Disappointed, his master beat him senseless once more, until he could not take it - taking a stand against the injustice.

Judgement and Silence
Grabbing tools, shivs, or anything possible, James began to fight with the fury of a wild beast, smashing every ounce of himself against his master. It had been so long since James had hope, he forgot the feeling. All he knew was hard work, pain, and that he must live on. During the bout between apprentice and master, the two proved to be equally matched. With strength and durability on his opponent's side, but speed and strategy on his own. Both parties we exhausted, their time was growing shorter with every attempt to strike the other. They both bled profusely, and James dug his fingers into his eyes, blinding him, to which he conceded the boy's strength. But this was not enough - it had to end. James took up a laser welder, pointing it at the helpless man, and driving a beam through his skull. Wanted by the law, James remained hidden, planning his escape - Dozens of different plans, none of which finalized or enticing enough to try. During this same span of 7 years, Dr. Artouras tracked all he could to find his cherished friends, perhaps more than friends. He hunted down any lead he found, all to dead ends. The good Doctor would never see Viktoria again, for she was lost.

Not a Moment to Lose
James often went out to the landing pads before others had departed. A petty dispute about rocks, food, or something broke out, and the people quarreled for minutes before shots rang across the bay, leaving many of the subordinates injured and maimed. This was the chance James was alive for, one chance to make a run for it. As the two gangs shot from cover at each other, the fire was redirected at James as he ran for the landed ship. As he ran nearly 100 meters to the ship he took a shot to the leg, slowing him down as he boarded the spacecraft. With new hope surging through his veins, he did his best to get off the God-forsaken planet. His skills were long rusted over, but he quickly regained his footing with the controls, but as he cruised out toward Omicron Theta, response vessels arrived to stop him. Alerted to an escaped detainee, they fired on sight, quickly failing the shields of the sluggish fighter. James knew how to fly, but had little knowledge on how to fight in space. He tried dodging, but the guided missiles struck time and time again. In his last ditch effort to get free, he started cruise again, flying straight away from the planet. As he flew, inbound torpedoes struck just aft of the flight deck, severing it from the rest of the craft, and causing severe damage to the cabin. The explosion left James floating in a sealed compartment of what used to be a flight deck. The impact had so much force that James' lower body was separated clean away by the restraints of the seat, and blood quickly floated around the gravity-free pod.

Another Day, Another Chance
Unconscious and frozen, James floated through space in the pod drifting further and further away from the civilized life. It was at this time Dr. Artouras' search would finally come to an end. Stumbling across the derelict pod, the Doctor quickly acted on his medicinal instincts. As he pulled the pod in with his tractor, he set up what medical facilities he could in his transport, meanwhile setting a course for Freeport 9. The doctor started to bring James out of stasis, carefully revitalizing him with transfused blood, and additional oxygen. James was on the way to a rough recovery if he would make it.

On the Freeport, medical personnel worked their best to save the unknown soul, using the most advanced forms of experimental medicine available, along with artificial reconstruction. It took nearly 2 years for James to wake up from his nightmare, making the fullest recovery possible at that point. Dr. Artouras did not recognize the now adult James, and James himself did not remember his own name. In honor of the Doctor's lost son, he rechristened James' last name to Erzie, and left his first name for James to decide. And from there the doctor began to become great friends with the lad. The Doctor was determined to help Erzie learn about the history of the Sirius system, and about the new technologies, as the knowledge Erzie was lacking at best. Erzie spent the next 10 years learning what he had missed being kept in captivity, and in due time, became a scholar and skilled pilot.

The Nomad War
During the time of the Nomad War, Dr. Artouras left to help scientists around Sirius with the new threat. The Doctor himself had little contribution to the direct events in the struggle, but learned a great deal of the newest threat to Sirius. Set on preventing another episode of Nomadic terror, Dr. Artouras set off to educate Zoners and experiment with alien technology. It was this interest that Erzie wanted to stay away from, so he let the Doctor go out alone. Little did Erzie know that it was the last time he would see him.

From Then to Now
Erzie has spent the past years since the Nomad War advancing technology and helping good science. Fully qualified with a doctorate in thermodynamics, he is regarded as a brilliant scientist to work with. James has been in hiding for many years, avoiding public eye until he got terrible news. Dr. Markus Artouras had fallen prey to Nomadic vessels aboard The Sanctification in Cambridge. Outraged by the news, the Freelancer decided that enough was enough, and that he would destroy the evil of Sirius. He now dedicates his life to saving souls from senseless losses over petty crime, and saving those who cannot defend themselves from the biggest threat Sirius has ever seen. He has been linked to and taken action with Battlegroup Auxesia, the Order, Hessians, and many more, as their principles were well aligned with his goals. After his stint as a Freelancer and Order agent, James joined Ingenuus, quickly making his way to acting CEO in the absence of Finn McCool.