The spark that started SCUL was quite tiny. I had discovered CHVNK666 and was scouring their website as often as I could. My brother chopped a Schwinn Corvette. We put long forks on little ships and slid them around in the Allston snow. I was working at an ice cream store and didn’t know much about tools, let alone welding. I worked as a finisher at Merlin Metalworks. I designed SCUL’s first ship, Abandon All Hope, and begged Terminator S to do some machining and Gassy D to to the welding. One day human Gwyn Jones, the president of Merlin Metalworks back then, said in passing “You’re artistic: you should learn how to weld”. I made a couple of ships. I tried to start this gang called ‘Flying Donut’. I even manged to trick a few friends into joining me in terrorizing a few car-free Sundays on Memorial Stardrive. It didn’t take long to realize the real adventures were to be found at night and on the street. I built The Four Choppers of the Apocalypse, as well as the Seven Deadly Choppers of SCUL. A few hardcore believers came regularly, and our fleet grew.

We began routine night patrols of the local starsystems, slowly evolving our tech and increasing our range over the seasons. Chopper centuries became went from a crazy idea, to an accomplishment, to a yearly tradition. Artists, teachers, nerds, mechanics, dreamers, dodgers, and doers get together and thrived on a regular basis.

We rode to rock for many seasons. We switched over our special blend of Funk, Groove and Disco we now call ‘Chopper Groove’ — and it changed us. We stopped trying to be bad-ass and started trying to be the good guys. We started high-fiving people. Our numbers grew. Bangor and Providence divisions came and went. (Starchasers and SCUL Prime are the two divisions active today)

I moved around a lot, and SCUL lived in whatever basement I was living in. More on this later. After fifteen years, an invitation to become entwined with the Artisan’s Asylum was a dream come true.

SCUL has evolved into an amazing entity, and twenty years is a lot to try and put on paper. Fortunately the early days of documenting everything never stopped, so it’s all on record. I invite you to try a random sampling of mission reports, ship descriptions, and pilot profiles; for a genuine sampling of SCUL culture and history.