Rose O'Leary

[Lucend]

John Karva strolled down the halls of the Battleship Missouri. He had been gone awhile from home, and his folks missed him, but he was on his own now. Or at least thats what he was telling himself. Most of Johns family was into making money, somehow. His mother and father were execs in the Bretonian company Planetform, his older brother, Bill, hauled diamonds from New Berlin to New Tokyo, and his beautiful cousin, Rose OLeary, owned her own Liberty Mammoth in Planetform and ran civilians and boron into Tau-31.
John was the black sheep of the family, having gone into West Point instead of business school. His parents were proud of all their children, they knew the Liberty Navy would take care of John and would give him the same kind of opportunity that they had monetarily, but they also worried about their son. Navy life was hard, as he would have to fly into unknown or uncharted systems and deal with the worst criminals the Sector had to offer. His parents had much on their minds, all that John thought of tonight is the bunk waiting for him in his ensign quarters.

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Recruit Karva, this is Commander Jenson, Ill be giving you your tutorial on the finer points of the Avenger, Very Heavy Fighter. Crackled the comms on Johns Avenger. He had just gotten his setting right and his ship loaded out with the best Liberty could buy. MK VIII armor, Imp. Debilitators and even a THORS HAMMER, a special, and secret, codenamed weapon. His ship strafed to the left and right as he leaned on his controls. Everything was going smoothly.

As you know, Ill be monitoring your progress from this nearby station, other than the satellites; youre out there on your own. Said the commander. This was very true, today was Karvas first real-life test in the Connecticut system.

Tomorrow will be the minefield test, but we should start you out in a wide-open arena. You will be assaulted by simple drones from all sides; I would suggest evasive and counter-active maneuverings we practiced earlier. Understood recruit?
Aye sir. Awaiting deployment.
Good, here we go. John noticed his scanners picking up the drones, and set his course to match theirs, within minutes he had destroyed two out of the four that the Commander sent.

Suddenly, John felt his fighter bank and roll, making it difficult to control.
Recruit Karva, return to base. There are two system-wide ion storms incoming. I suggest you enter the Trade Lane and quickly get . The comms cut, but John had his orders. Dodging the simulated fire from the drones, he was just about to enter the nearest Lane when a large discharge from the coming head of the storm disabled the Lane satellites and rendered the system inoperable.

Drat. Command, this is recruit Karva, Trade Lane system deactivated, is there another base I can dock at? His message was only met with static. The recruit noticed the large ion storm when the nearby sun lit up the head. It was indeed system wide, but command said two, where was the second? In desperation, John activated cruise in an attempt to bypass the storm, but when he did he saw the other storm right on top of him, it was merging with the one coming from the bottom of the system, causing all kinds of electrostatic turbulence. Huge swirling tornados of ionized particles started connecting the storms, causing Karva to have to swerve in and out. Trying desperately to keep his fighter in open space, he instinctively flew into the largest bubbles of non-ionized space his scanners could detect. John was just worrying he wouldnt make it to the next bubble when he detected something strange.

WARNING: RADIATION DETECTED, NEW JUMPHOLE DETECTED

Computer, lock on to the jumphole and plot a course. His words were rendered useless, however, when a large discharge hit his fighter and took out his main computer. In desperation, Karva flew right into the jumphole, throwing to the wind what he had learned about chaotic jumphole safety. The recruit figured, he would do better on the other side, than in between two obviously angry ion storms.

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Steam hung lazily in the air as the showerhead continuously shushed the rest of the bathroom. The sole occupant turned the water off and reached out of the shower curtain fumbling around for a towel. She wrapped her hair up into the great monument that it was, and wrapped a towel around her midsection. The Skippers private shower was a luxury most on the Memory didnt have, besides the first mate of course.
As she stepped into her main quarters, the door rang. Of course, she thought. The universe doesnt stop, ever.
The Skipper quickly wrapped a robe around her and unlocked the door. A man strolled in and sat down on a chair, without even looking at his employer, he quickly read his datapad aloud and calmly. As he finished, he looked up and said with a strange look on his face. And lastly, Skipper, an encoded Liberty Navy channel was opened just as I was headed down here. He is still on the line.
The Skippers bright blue eyes lit up and she stopped pacing.
Thank you, Benson. Ill take the channel in here. Ill be on the bridge once Im done. She turned away and the first mate bowed out of her room. She turned her monitor on and brought up the Navy encrypted comm. channel. Breathing in deeply to compose herself, however much she could in a robe and towel, the Skipper turned the comm. channel on.
Miss OLeary? Excuse the early hours, but is this a bad time? The Commander said with a dreary tone in his voice.
Not at all, who did you say you were again?
I didnt, my name is Commander Jenson of the Liberty Navy
Listen, if this is about that weapon sale, I found the thing on the borderworlds. I really didnt know the CERBERUS would cause that much damage
Miss OLeary, this is not about
Captain OLeary, Commander.
Right, the Navy officer clears his throat, Captain OLeary, this is not about any weapon sales. This is a grave matter, Im afraid. I couldnt get hold of Mr. or Mrs. Karva, but their son recruit John Karva, we believe died in the ion storm in the Connecticut system last week.
Rose sat at the terminal, stunned. She had known John ever since her own parents had died in childhood. They had almost been brother and sister. Suddenly she looked back at the terminal.
You believe he died?
After the ion storm we went out and searched the area for any sign of his fighter. All we could tractor in was the badly damaged fighter and other debris. His escape pod was missing
You didnt find his escape pod? So he could still be out there!
Captain, weve been searching for the past week. Its most likely his pod was vaporized in the aftermath of the storm.
Rose sat back in her chair and looked off into the distance. Commander Jenson allowed Rose to stall in order to compose herself, and then cleared his throat loudly.
As Rose drug her eyes back to the terminal, suddenly exhaled deeply and had an idea. Thank you Commander, Ill contact the Karvas right away. She said, and promptly turned the terminal off, cutting off the Commander in mid-thought.
The wall panel beeped and Rose hit the accept button.
Skipper, Planet Manhattan is coming up. Youre requested on the bridge.
Alright Bill, Ill be right there. She was uncharacteristically soft in her command, something she hadnt let herself do in years. Rose got up from her chair and hurriedly got dressed. The universe never stops, does it, she thought, balancing on one foot and failing miserably to tame the tube sock.

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This is recruit Karva calling any friendly or unfriendly vessel in ear-shot. Please respond! John had been shouting into the comm. system for over an hour, with no foreseeable effect. He might as well have been shouting into his paperwork for all it mattered.
John sat back and looked at the fiery, chaotic jumphole that had vomited him in this desolate system. Because his computer was down, he couldnt calculate his chances of survival, but his guess was slim to none. A small beeping informed John that the nanobots were completed with their work and repaired the engines, unfortunately the computer was beyond repair but at least John had cruising speed.
Firing up his cruise engines, the young recruit started to scout out the system. The area wasnt very unique, a dusk cloud up ahead was the biggest, physically, attractive area, so he steered his small ship on an intercept course. Finally, as he was approaching the cloud, he detected a Rhienland ship.
Hail, Rhienland ship. This is recruit John Karva of the Southern Alliance, Liberty Navy. Do you copy?
The Rhienland Wrath didnt respond, didnt do anything really, simply continued on its patrol.
Rhienland ship, this is John Karva of the Liberty Navy, do you copy? Im lost and would appreciate a response, anything
John was just about to wonder whether the Rhienland ships translator was busted when the ship finally turned around and fired a cruise disruptor.
Woah, hold on, Im a friendly. Im simply lost, buddy! Could you cease
Too late, the Wrath banked and started firing on Johns badly damaged Avenger. John spun as well as he could, but he could only dodge so much damage. He also noticed the Wrath had some unidentified weapons on the ship, weapons that fired a bluish, purplish projectile. Weapons that brought his shields down with a single pass
****, he said, rounding his Avenger around and thrusting away from the fire. If I can get back to the jumphole Come on, baby!
John was lucky in that the damage to his ship made hitting him difficult, the downside being his control was limited. Still, more Wraths were closing, and the jumphole was still a far ways away. Slowly John limped back to the hole and was about to jump back when his main engine cut and went critical. Without a second thought, he hit the eject lever and his pod launched. He watched his ship glide into the jumphole and felt his pod being tractored in.

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"The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.
Nick looked at the burned-over stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railroad track to the bridge over the river. The river was there."

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