I grew up working in a small mining colony. My father died in a mining accident when I was little, maybe 3 or 4. My mother scraped by, working odd jobs and being thrifty. I started working in the mines myself to help make some extra credits around the age of 12. It never seemed to be enough. We dug through trash on a frequent basis to find scraps of food, or items to repair/expand our hovel with. My mother was an incredibly strong and determined individual. She vowed that one day all our struggles would pay off, that we would climb out of the hole we had fallen into. You could see it in her eyes that she meant it.
Around age 16 things had finally seemed like they had started to turn the corner. My mother and I had enough credits to get our own place, food wasn't a scarcity any more. Dare I say my mother almost looked happy for the first time that I could remember. Unfortunately the sector of space we called home was becoming increasingly unstable as the mining operation grew. After word got out that we had hit an incredibly rich titanium vain things really got ugly. The miners demanded a pay raise, as the mining operation demanded we work long, hard, dangerous hours to extract every last ounce of their precious titanium. Worse though was the attention it started to draw from outsiders. The pirates and outlaws started making regular raids on the mines. As such the mines decided to convert a small percentage of the workers into armed guards, I wasn't lucky enough to be selected. Tensions between the guards, the miners, the management, and pirates finally boiled over. Our small mining colony turned into a war zone in the blink of eye. I barely escaped the mines with my life, as I raced home.
What I found as I turned the last corner on my way to our small apartment made my draw drop, the entire sector was a blaze, gun fire could be heard everywhere. People were pouring out of buildings anyway they could, some were looting, others vandalizing, worse yet were the pirates shooting anyone they felt like with impunity. I was swept up in an angry mob, carried away as I tried to fight against their overwhelming current. It felt like ages, but I am told the whole event only lasted a couple of hours. Eventually a mercenary group arrived and put an end to all the madness. They arrived with a fleet of heavily armed ships bearing insignias of Crimson Blades. Their shock assault soldiers were impressive to say the least, the fight was over within minutes of their arrival. The Crimson Blades stayed in system long enough to ensure the pirates didn't retaliate, also as it turns out their fee for saving the colony wasn't cheap either. They still collect a large percentage of all goods leaving the colony for their services as well as providing continuing protection for the colony.
After the skirmish had ended I was finally able to make it back to our small apartment, or what remained of it. I searched for my mother for days, but was never able to find her, no one had seen her either. Eventually they found her body in the rubble of the apartment building. Charred to the point she wasn't recognizable. A Crimson Blades medic helping with the relief effort informed me that the burnt remains in front of me was a near perfect match based on my DNA. I couldn't believe it, I made him run the test over and over again. Eventually a captain of the Crimson Blades told me that I had to let it go, that it didn't matter how many times the test is ran, the results were always going to be the same. He asked if he could escort me to the rest of my family. I told him I didn't have any, that the burnt beyond recognition corpse in front of us was my mother and my last relative. He lead me somewhere, trying to comfort me along the way. Eventually we made it to the Crimson Blades camp, where he made sure I was given a good meal and kept company. He departed, but returned before I had finished my meal. He said he wanted to make me an offer, to allow me to join a brother hood and be part of a family again. He offered me to become a recruit in the Crimson Blades. I accepted.