Sebastian Hemsler

"It's called a fool's errand for a reason."

Sebastian Hemsler came from a family of activists who opposed their planetary government's decision to become a UFP protectorate. Sebastian saw their civic-mindedness for the greed it really was, and came to understand that they were asking him to support the family's profit margins over the physical and economic security of his world. When the rift had grown too great to ever mend, Sebastian's last act of defiance was to join the UFP starforces.

He retired from the Starforces after 20 years and had served on multiple naval vessels as a technical rating or engineer (with his retirement tour spent as a section chief aboard the UFP fleet cruiser Kataphraktos). Upon retirement, he was hired for Ishida-Krupp, a stellar survey/terraforming conglomerate, using his ample technical skills aboard various deep-space explorer vessels. During this time, he tried to make contact with his younger brother Johan, who he hadn't seen in over two decades. After some arduous digging--which was not easy, considering the severed ties with most of the rest of his family--Sebastian learned that his younger brother had followed in his own footsteps, rebelling against their father and uncles. Johan had joined the Explorers, but had gone missing on the planet Thonne. Sebastian slowly came to feel responsible for his brother ever being on that planet with its alien base.

Over the course of several years, Sebastian tried to use his position aboard various starships plying at the frontiers of known space to try and follow leads to his brother's fate or location, but he eventually got into the search so deeply that the company discovered his misappropriations and took legal action against him. They easily won their case, and due to the magnitude of debt, were able to place a lien against Sebastian's military pension, leaving the former engineer both unemployed and destitute.

He has finally come to grips with the notion that in all likelihood, Johan is long dead, and further searching would only be a fool's errand.