Rene sat back squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to banish the last unpleasant effects of the jump. No one who had been bought up in the Imperial arisocracy was ever very far removed from the reality of their family lineages. Familal connections and marital alliance we're stronger and more binding than any legal or corporate contract. Even someone like Rene, who had spent half a decade trying to actively forget his family, was still much closer to the aristocratic ideal than he would like to admit.

He didn't want to talk about his family, particularly if it meant putting Solae in further danger, but she did have a right to know about her theoretical future marriage allies. Rene took a deep breath and squeezed Solae's hand.

"The Du Quentains are a old Capellan family, back to the Collapse." Most of the work old Noble families at least claimed to trace lineages back to the catostopic war which had ended the Terran hagemony over the human Galaxy. Rene had seen the ancient immigration records which listed a Major Leon Quentain as the second in command of Colonial security when the Cappelan colony was founded. He had also seen the after action reports which described how Julian Du Quentain had ordered his men to open fire on hungry citizens during the collapse. Maybe he wasn't so abnormal for his line, maybe the killing and the violence on New Concordia was true to his family rather than diverging from it.

"We are one of the old millitary families who fought in the Shism. My great grandfather was one of Kolvic's captains," he explained referencing the inner circle of commanders who had fought the bloody protracted war. He felt uncomfortable, feeling as though he was bragging even though he was only laying out the facts. 

"There are too junior branches, minor Cappelan Lords, four or five first cousins. My father, he pretty much holds them in contempt, poor relations." Rene remembered the hard and envious glances at his mother's funeral, men and women with the family features but none of the gravitas his parents were careful to exude.

"I am... Or was an only child, though I suppose it is possible that my father has had another child since my enlistment." Rene hadn't heard from his father since Amelia's death buy it made sense that the old man had made some arrangement for the succession. Rene's exact legal situation was murky the legal protection of the Marines was not intended for Nobles. Whether or not Rene was disinheritred was a legal question which would be beyond the power of a peniless soldier to pursue.

"My mother died when I was nine, an anyrisim. The maternal line is Cassek, but mother came from a fairly junior branch. They are pretty far removed from the title." He quirked a grin.

"I don't know how much any of this is helping."