User:Soylent

Soylent - named after his paternal grandfather, an ace who flew for many years with the Crimson Armada, was expected to follow in precisely those footprints. To an extent, he did. He graduated Flight School with top honors and was widely renowned for his seemingly innate dogfighting skills. A bright future seemed assured within the Armada.

This came to a crashing halt when, as a young Captain, he struck a superior officer who had impuned his honor for refusing to strafe a downed pirate Bullfrog's crew struggling in the waters beneath Tortuga. Soylent found himself broken back to Private and grounded, helping the moles refuel and rearm CA planes at Fuseli. Within a month he'd realized that the rigidity of Armada order was at odds with his own discipline. He approached his CO, apologized for the affront, and resigned his commission forthwith.

"I regret, Sir," he said in his resignation letter, "That the ideals of the Armada are carried in a manual of rules, rather than in the hearts of its pilots, and I cannot in good conscience continue to fight for those whose decisions I see as self-serving beneath a gilded veneer of military pomp."

Soylent flew alone, in a CR-4P, the only plane he could initially afford, for the better part of a year, earning a slim livelihood as a gun-for-hire. His business was poor, not least because he refused any job that conflicted with his sense of personal honor. In a move that surprised many, he applied to and was accepted by the Emerald Republic as a general fighter pilot. In a letter home, he attempted to explain his choice.

"It's not that the Republic is somehow more honorable that the Armada, Father, it's simply that they are honest as to what they are. They are true to what they believe, and do not conceal their selfish aims behind a screen of ceremony and awards. They follow profit and information, and use the means available to them. I am one of those means. I fly for them, I protect their traders, I escort their spies, and they are happy to accommodate my outdated sense of honor. I know how this will disappoint you, father, but I hope someday you'll understand that it's better to be a knight in service to an honestly materialistic master than to one who hides their greed behind the justice you taught me to always seek. My love to you and mother, be well. Soylent."

Soylent has not heard from his father in over two years.