It wasn't uncommon for him to take scraps and leftovers from the factory and bring them home for some side project. He'd come out triumphant with some unwieldly, ugly creation eventually. Over time, his skill and experience grew. He was making small machines, putting together functional things, and learning to -create-. The seed of curiosity had taken root.
His other great past-time was Pyramid. His friends watched it, but most of them didn't play - so he'd walk on over to the public Pyramid court. The ones in his neighborhood were empty more often than not, so he'd take the long trek to the worn-out and dirty courts on the outskirts of town, which was where he met Zander Teresi. The ragged youth would come to be his best friend for years, the two of them spending hours on the courts and in town.
Andreas knew Zander's background - and as they grew older, his friend became more and more involved in his family's line of work. It didn't serve to bring them apart, though, and he ended up covering for Zander a few times, whether it was spotting him a bit of money or providing an alibi. It was interesting, exciting stuff to him; the stuff he read about in books and saw in the vids.
The naval recruiters came around to Andreas' school and spoke of dancing between the stars, engines that were like none other, Raptors and Vipers and FTLs and all sorts of wizardry that he knew he wouldn't be able to work with anywhere else. To the dismay of his parents, his heart was set. Their son was joining the Fleet. No amount of persuasion or monetary promises would dissuade him.
He said his farewells to his friend Zander (his pesky little sister was there, but then again, she was /always/ there), bid his parents adieu, and took off from his homeworld for the first time in his life. Boot Camp was of little challenge physically, but it took a while for him to be beaten into the military ethos and lifestyle. In time, he distinguished himself and graduated top third - but not first. That's when he realized that being smart and having skills wasn't all that mattered in the Navy - in fact, it mattered quite little to most people.
After finishing A-School (again, top third; again, not first), he was assigned to ships in turn. He learned fast, not because he was particularly brighter than anyone else but because he was absolutely obsessive over each new thing until he understood it backwards and forwards - he'd read manuals night after night instead of sleeping to familiarize himself with a subject. But he butted heads with quite a few of his colleagues (and sometimes the Deck Chief) because of his obsessiveness and his perfectionist attitude which him seem to others as a holier-than-thou snob in many cases.
But apart from those clashes, Andreas was a nice, friendly, and mostly well-liked guy. His work was solid, he was always eager to learn, and dependable to boot. He served some time for drunkenness and conduct unbecoming - who hasn't? - on one of his shore leaves, and got tagged for insubordination and AWOL a couple times as well. Immediately following, he was promoted to Petty Officer 2nd Class and assigned to teach at the A-School for two years.
Following that, it was back to the ships. Huge hulking Battlestars were the regular fare for him now, and it was only a matter of time before he was assigned to the Cerberus, the pride of the Colonial Fleet. Still fairly new on the ship, he's starting to get the hang of the way things are done on the Cerberus - and getting to know the people he works with, some of whom he's worked with and under before.
