A Liberty Story

[Sunset Glow]

Battleship Mississippi, the next day...

Commodore Caruthers sat in his office and reviewed the files from the latest transfers towards the Mississippi. It was the time where the west point academy students graduated so he naturally expected more files than usual. A mug of coffee rested on his desk and he read over the first file of the pile, a freshly graduated recruit.

Final evaluation and recommendations

Name: Sandra Rivers
Age: 25
Birthplace: Planet Los Angeles, California
Gender: Female
Height: 5’4
Weight: 83 lbs
Relatives: Nicole Rivers
Previous fields of work: Hotel Staff/Attaché/Navy Academy Student


Personality Profile: Well developed, despite history including loss of both parents, captivity and forced labor. Sensitive and empathic. Usually plays it safe but can become a risk taker in certain instances. Strong willed, intelligent, thoughtful, foresightful, amiable, team spirit, gentle. Responds well to kindness.


Combat performance: Moderate fighting prowess, excels at evasion, strong in group fights but weak in duels. High survivability, good with minirazor and supernova antimatter cannon. Best performance in a bomber.


Final notes: This recruit was a bit of a mystery to me at times. Highly sensitive, gentle and empathic, this woman seems ill suited for combat and the strains of battle. And yet she has continued showing promising results in flight performance tests. Excels at evasion and maneuvering, yet scores the best results with a bomber. Weak in duels but strong in group fights. Works well with authority and command structure but cannot function without personal freedom.

I think I have not entirely understood this recruit to this day, but somehow she seems to be able to work with herself and after some initial trial and error, so was I and once I was, this recruit turned out to be a real gem. Here are my insights:

This recruit is a think outside of the box type. She likes to improvise on the fly. Be sure to give her the room to play that strength.

She is also highly sensitive – utilize this “weakness” to the advantage of the team. This recruit works like an advanced sensor beacon. During flight performance tests she somehow sniffed out danger and traps before anyone else did, foiling quite a few ambush missions I had programmed. Be sure to consider her intuition which leads me to…

This woman is a survivor. Not only of the perils of her past but also of combat situations. Again, make use of this! If you need a message, data or anything delivered out of a combat zone and back to safety, this pilot is your woman for the job. No matter what I threw at her in survivability tests in the flight simulator, she made it out alive in 9 out of 10 scenarios. Be sure not to waste that talent with making her stay in combat when her instincts are telling her to get out.

To summarize: Sensitive but great potential. Treat with kindness, handle with care and give room to play her strengths. And get this recruit in a bomber at earliest convenience for best results.