"Well," Reese began, thinking of a way to answer Vance's query. "it's kind of a long story. I came from Näthalon, a conquered planet-base on the edge of the Serpens-Hermes system. It's one of many planets that was consumed by the Serpens-Hermes Government Empire (SHG)--pretty much a space N[b]a[/b]zi empire, only without anti-Semitism and all that..." Reese gesticulated with his hands in an attempt to think of a proper word. "...stuff. That planet was conquered long before I was even born. I grew up in an impoverished but loving family. Mi papá was a hard-working man and former resistance spy, and mi mama herself was a former medic for the SHG army, but turned once she realized the atrocities of the SHG; they had to change their first names and immigrate to a different planet to hide. Although I hadn't much technology to work with, my father had many tools within a closet that I would use to tinker with whatever toys, appliances, and scrap that my family or other families within our neighborhood had. Life was hard: our neighborhood was often ridden with gangs, poverty, and sickness, and I eventually had to start making toys and equipment to sell so I could support my family. School was hard as well, as I had to constantly resist the propaganda that they would twist the minds of students with. However, I excelled in engineering, and became successful academically." Reese sighed, then stated blankly into the bar table as memories became increasingly vivid to him. "Everything seemed promising, but it all came to a quick end. When I was fifteen, I ran into trouble with an SHG officer when me and a few neighborhood children found a resistance frequency on a modified radio. That discovery would cost me everything. Just minutes after, a whole squadron of SHG soldiers came and wiped out my neighborhood, imprisoning the children and killing everyone older in the neighborhood. Mi mama y papá fought back so that I could get away and escape...but they were captured, tortured, humiliated, and executed as soon as I did so..." Reese gripped his glass firmly, causing a small crack to appear on its lip. "I'll never forget the faces, the love, and the warmth of my parents...mi familia. Después--I mean after, I spent months out in the streets without any friends or family for asylum or solace, until the resistance eventually took me into their arms. Among them, I found companionship, meaning, and life-long friends that almost became a second family to me. As I rose up in rank and gathered both technology and experience, I learned much about armed combat and weapon design. These weapons--" Reese slowly and carefully opened his cloak toward Vance, exclusively revealing to her his wide range of weaponry, then slowly closed his cloak. "--are all of my making. The gauntlets on my wrists are SHG technology that I stole and modified," Reese chuckled. "I also have other weaponry elsewhere that I either store in a safe place or gave to others. The more I spent time in the ranks of the resistance, however, the more I changed. I grew bitter and fostered enmity toward the SHG increasingly with every year, and it got to a point where I grew reckless enough to the point where I almost got me and my entire squadron killed; that happened when I was twenty-eight." Reese thought pensively in a sort of guilt, then was slightly started when a soldier slammed the other side of the bar table in laughter as one of his comrades tells a joke to his friends. Subsequently, Reese turned back toward Vancee. "Eventually, I got a covert mission to secretly monitor the daughter of a highly influential governor within the SHG. Her name was--and still is--Clara," Reese explained. He started to think of the first memories he had of her. "At the time, she was thirteen years old, and a really big kiss-up toward the SHG; she would excel in every academic course and combat training, although she had a big mouth and a lack of common sense. I despised her, quite a lot," Reese admitted, with guilt. "However, she somehow began to grow on me, maybe because we had a few things in common, despite that clashing viewpoint. One day, she was given the opportunity to take part in a SHG experiment, and--not surprisingly--she accepted." Reese leaned forward against the bar table in deep thought. "They did horrible things to her," Reese explained, pitifully. "The experiment they ran on her failed, and it severely mutated her; her hair turned white, she lost her mouth, and most significantly, her cells lost most of their bonding capabilities after being fused with a silver-like fluid. Her body fell apart in a grey puddle, so she had to wear a special anklet to keep herself together. Clara was seen as a failure, so she was imprisoned to be utilized as a source for experimentation material. It devastated her, both physically and mentally, and changed her just as significantly. When I broke her out, she grew a lot more humble, and came to despise the SHG from that day onward." Then, Reese began to sit straighter on his seat. "We soon discovered that her parents were killed after the experiment was deemed a failure. I didn't want her to have to live without a family like I once had to," Reese explained expressively. "so I decided to take her in myself and adopt her. Clara's like a daughter to me, and I guess she kind of saved [i]me[/i] as well." Reese scratched the back of his head, having thought that he might have spilled a bit too much of himself; he was on his third drink, after all. "A year or so later, the SHG discovered the resistance command base where I was assigned, and they wiped out...everything. Clara and I were among the few survivors, and Corvo--a great friend whom I could call my brother--was among the dead. I realized things has gotten too dangerous for Clara, so she and I began wandering from place to place in search of a new life and home, Gydaton being one of those places before it fell into anarchy. We've met amazing people and made new friends throughout it all, and I'm glad to have at least most of them now. However, the thought of it all falling apart again lingers in my mind. I don't want to lose my home or family again...like I already had many times before."