Overview

Aaron Desinger is the founder, captain, and sole permanent crew of Desinger Salvage & Systems, an independent orbital repair and recovery outfit operating between Earth and Mars in the mid-to-late 2040s. His ship, Kestrel Dawn, is a heavily modified civilian utility vessel—equal parts workshop, tug, and scrapyard—designed to survive the hazards of zero-G salvage, micro-meteorite fields, and the unpredictable needs of a customer base that ranges from small startups to desperate colony outposts.

A known figure in the early culture of civilian space industry, Desinger represents a growing class of frontier freelancers: unaligned, self-reliant, and operating just outside the reach of formal policy. To some, he’s a folk hero of the new economy. To others, he’s an unpredictable wildcard with just enough charm to talk his way into—or out of—trouble.

Background

Born in 2005 in what was then the western U.S., Aaron grew up in the backwash of a declining aerospace industry. The child of a scrapyard foreman and a shuttle mechanic, he was raised on heat-scorched tarmac and half-gutted fuselages. He earned his first license in groundcraft repair by seventeen and joined an orbital maintenance apprenticeship before his twenty-first birthday.

After several years working under contract for various low-orbit industrial firms, Aaron cashed out a small inheritance and acquired the shell of an old multipurpose cargo hauler. With a year of jury-rigging, scavenging, and some quiet favors from his old union contacts, he transformed it into the Kestrel Dawn. He’s been flying under his own name ever since.

Personality

Aaron is direct, adaptable, and mechanically gifted. He has little patience for bureaucracy but understands how to play just enough of the game to win contracts and avoid unnecessary scrutiny. His easy charm masks a deeper sense of responsibility—he genuinely believes that people like him are what keep the frontier from falling apart.

He tends to operate solo by choice, but frequently collaborates with temporary crew, station engineers, or fellow freelancers when the job demands it. Despite occasional accusations of cutting corners, he has a solid reputation for doing what he promises—even if that means welding through a lunar night in a patched-up EVA suit.

Motivations

• Independence: Aaron values his freedom above all. He flies where he wants, works for who he chooses, and fixes things his own way.


• Survival: He’s seen what happens when people in orbit rely too much on distant oversight or slow-moving agencies. He believes in the right to self-repair, self-supply, and self-govern—within reason.


• Legacy: Quietly, he’s building something more than a business. He wants Desinger Salvage to prove that small operators matter—that the space economy isn’t only for megacorps and governments.


• Code of Honor: He won’t take jobs that strand people, sabotage others, or bury bodies. If the work is dangerous, so be it—but he doesn’t deal in malice.

Notable Mentions

• Known to operate along Earth–Mars transfer routes, including recovery ops at Lagrange waystations.


• Rumored to have once pulled a station core module out of a decaying orbit with less than 3% reactor margin.


• Frequently disputes salvage rights with larger firms—but usually wins through sheer tenacity or clever navigation of outdated space law.