Note: I rewrote and reworked Vaughn's story since I've been trying to develop his character a bit more.
Chapter Two: Vaughn's Story
My name is Vaughn Heissturm. Of course that is not my real name. The honest truth is that I am Jan Gunderson. Yes that Cabal member son of a bitch is my father. I'll start from the very beginning, I was born in Munich, Germany in 1973. I was the son of Katja Schmidt, who was the only daughter of Otto Schmidt, the leader of the Guilhelm Faction. I have vivid memories of my father trying to get as much information as he could about the faction.
At the same time, various Lux Veritatis operations were being discovered by The Cabal resulting in many members being killed or severely injured. Operations that only the most trusted members had any idea about. My mother eventually discovered Cabal documents in Gunderson's belongings and realized that he was acting as an informant.
While he was gone, probably reporting to Eckhardt, my mother moved us back into the Guilhelm Faction Estate and filed for divorce. Things were fine for a few months, until the night my mother was killed. I remember it clearly, I was thirteen and my mother and I had spent the day in nearby city just to get off the estate for a while. My mother was driving about a few feet from the gate of the estate when we were rammed by another car that was hidden in the darkness.
My mother's car was slammed into the gate with such force that my head slammed into the passenger side window, which made me a little disoriented. I saw out of the corner of my eye, a man holding a flashlight up through the now shattered driver's side window. I for a moment thought that it could have been one of the faction members who was on watch that night, but as I got a better look I saw that it was my father checking if my mother was still breathing. She was and he fired one shot into her chest. It is a sound that still echos in my nightmares. I was pistol whipped one he noticed that I was still conscious, knocking me out. I woke up in the infirmary a few hours later to the sound of my grandfather weeping about my mother's murder. Once I called to him, he told me that I could no longer stay in the Guilhelm faction and that I would be taking refuge with another faction, the Heissturm faction in America, The Heissturm Faction. I was reluctant to leave my home, but the possibility of Gunderson coming to the estate to finish me off was at the front of my grandfather's mind. About three weeks after my mother's murder and one week after my faction buried her in the faction's cemetery, I was sent to The Heissturm Estate in Salt Flats,Utah. What was supposed to be just a few years turned into a lifetime as no more than a month after I was welcomed into my new faction, Master Konstantin received word that my entire faction was wiped out by Gunderson's Mercenaries. I could never return to my family now. Master Konstantin and his wife become my guardians and he trained me to become a full fledged Lux Veritatis. Within that time, I became a citizen of the United States and grew close to Master Konstantin's daughter, Caylis whom I would eventually marry. I am happy with my new life, but I one day will have to face Gunderson and avenge my mother and my past faction. Wherever he is I hope he knows that he and the rest of the Cabal will pay for everything they've done.