Swami: Biography (Delura series)
This details Swami's unfortunate life before he became part of the Scrapper crew. There are things about his past that he still does not understand.
As an only child of two highly successful individuals, Swami's future was bright. His mother an incredibly talented bionic surgeon and entrepreneuer, and his father an expert programmer with mastery in both LI.BA.sie and Relictech. The bond that they all shared was a rare and joyous one. Swami lived an early life that any child could have ever wanted, where the future was exciting and discovery of new things was encouraged in the comfort and safety of financial security; their home being a luxurious and isolated satellite on the outskirts of the Targa Sector E platform.
The cracks in this dream would begin to show when Swami's parents insisted that they re-locate to the Targa platform itself; he was never told the reason why, but his parents appeared very upset and troubled by the decision. The area they moved to fascinated Swami as he had never seen such an immensely populated area with massive buildings, complex transport networks and countless neon signs of every imaginable color. Swami was never allowed to venture far outside their new home, being told that it was far too dangerous. One other thing that always bothered Swami is that it always felt as if his parents were trying to hide him from others, especially visitors.
One day, Swami would awaken to agonizing pain in his hands unlike anything he had experienced before; they felt as if they were encased in ice and glass shards. In tears, his parents assured him that it was okay, but Swami knew something was terribly wrong. The pain would eventually subside, but the cold would linger indefinitely. Too many things were happening at once for Swami to understand, all he remembered was that one fateful night what sounded like loud explosives being set off inside their mansion home emanated before his parents would rush him towards a secret exit that he had been told about (and instructed never to use). Swami would barely get a glimpse of a bloodied corpse of some stranger strewn about their living room floor.
Swami had been told about the possibility of this moment, but it could never be real until it happened from his perspective. He noticed his father was leaving a noticeable trail of blood behind him as they made their way to their destination. "It's nothing" His father would say dismissively, Swami just now noticing his parents were carrying weapons; this contradicted what he had always been taught about seeking peaceful solutions to problems.
The tunnel ahead of them branched in different directions, where Swami would see his father for the last time. No parting words were said. Swami's mother ignored his questions; only saying to be quiet and to follow closely. She seemed like an entirely different person; her eyes hollowed and the pale of her face visibly showing.
They would reach an opening where a hovercraft awaited them, but a flash of light would be all that Swami remembered before waking up inside of an abandoned building; he had no idea how much time had passed or what happened. Chills radiated from his spine as he thought about what had transpired, never in his life had he felt so alone and vulnerable.
A hologram would appear in front of him out of nowhere. It read:
"It looks like you're kinda lost. Need some help?"
Swami had no idea who this was, or why it was talking to him, but it was either trust this unknown... whatever it was or fend for himself. The hologram only seemed to be able to communicate via text, and upon inquiry, would output its name as "Shane the Data Mage", which Swami would later shorthand to "DM".
DM explained that Swami would not need to worry about his parents as they were in a "safe place", but would need to establish some kind of under-the-table work in order to ensure his survival. Specifically, his "mission" was to leave the Targa sector as soon as possible and meet with DM on the Tanadrine Grid where he would be safe from danger. This was an extremely expensive proposition though, as this location was half way across the Delura galaxy.
Years pass and Swami starts to become frustrated with DM, who seemed to want to veer him towards jobs that involved harming others. Ignoring DM's various statements of "you are more important than them", instead, Swami would be a provider of stolen information; this was not nearly as profitable but it was something that he could live with. It seemed that Swami would dwell upon the Targa sector indefinitely. Nonetheless, DM would assist Swami by providing programs and templates from him to work and learn off of.
One such task Swami would encounter involved tracking the trade patterns of Mantra, a ruthless space-faring clan that few dared to oppose. Setting his usual tracking device in a location he knew they would go to, he would be surprised by the early arrival of Mantra thugs and was forced to hide as the trade took place. Swami's device was uncovered, a skirmish ensued, and what appeared to be two rogue brutes were threatening to end his life (See also Dodger, (p1)). Given the fear that he felt, and that the events happened so quickly, Swami only barely remembers the point at which his life was spared. Afraid that they would change their minds, Swami would not speak for months after Dodger and Ivan took him aboard their ship as their programmer.
"As long as you make what we tell you to make, I won't blow your fucking head off." Dodger would say, those words more than adequately striking fear into Swami.
Ivan seemed to be the more sane of the two, and certainly far less violent but still pretty mean. He certainly took enjoyment out of pestering and belittling Swami without any apparent reason at all. Swami knew he was little more than a servant to them.
Over time Swami would convince himself that at the very least he had fulfilled part of his mission. In secret, he would speak with DM about his situation explaining that he had no way to escape... even if he had managed to get away, he would not have the resources to travel let alone keep himself fed. DM regrettably had no suggestions, and Swami grew concerned over the fact that DM's transmissions came in somewhat garbled as time went on. DM explained that this was nothing to worry about and that it was probably distance-related... Swami knew this was a lie however, as the distance between their current location and the Tanadrine Grid did not match these statements. DM assured Swami that he/she would be there for him. DM never did respond to Swami's question of "Are you a dude or not?"
Dodger and Ivan would eventually come to notice that Swami had some potential as a surgeon after being "volunteered" to tend to potentially life threatening injuries that were often a problem during raids. They did have medical supplies from their one ransacking of a medical station but had no idea how to actually put the tools and medicines to use. Swami hated this, but was afraid that Dodger would snap upon hearing the word "no"; which he was convinced was a word that was not in his vocabulary. Swami would discover that Dodger and Ivan were not always on good terms, but then again Ivan wasn't a thinly-built runt of a person by any means.
Swami continued to work with Dodger and Ivan, slowly becoming accustomed to what he thought could be called the space pirate's life. DM's messages still came to him occasionally but were starting to become hard to decipher. As mean as Ivan was, Swami began to see him as a brother he never had... this did not stop Swami from hacking and cheating on their competitive games of Clash Vector though; he deserved to lose embarrassingly. (IMPORTANT NOTE: Swami could totally beat Ivan at Clash Vector without cheating... and one-handed)
After an argument that resulted in Ivan getting plummeled, Dodger explains to Swami that he would need some very advanced programs in order to circumvent TIMCO's Tor's detection and defenses. This was far beyond Swami's capabilities, and he hoped that DM could pull through in helping him... otherwise Dodger's reaction to Swami's failure could get him killed.