"Starships. Oh, the USSA is the United Solar System Alliance. Goal of tryin' to take humanity to the farthest reaches in the galaxy. My parents are officers. I went to the academy, grew up on a starship... but I didn't just wanna spend more time whittlin' my life away inside a ship. Besides, uh... I only just barely passed academy anyway. I wasn't made out to be an officer anyway."

And he only got that far because his girlfriend at the time threatened to punch his dad on the nose every day if Sparks couldn't

"What I really wanted was to get my hands dirty, y'know? And Mars had what I was lookin' for. It only was recently terraformed, 'n it was already fulla outlaws, both robotic and organic. Mostly robotic."