Epilogue - Ian Dobesh

[Tyroflion]

//Author's note: I'm finishing a really old story-line of my first character in Discovery. I haven't played him much in the last few years and he does deserve some closure. Therefor I'm creating this little story. I'm using the character of Heidi.Corefall who's RL author I'm pretty sure doesn't play Discovery anymore. However if I'm wrong and the owner of Heidi.Corefall is still playing and disagrees with my version of the story or it's conclusion feel free to send me a PM and I'll change it.

I dedicate this story to Heidi for the best role-playing I had in my 5 years of playing Disco.

A long time ago there was this young boy named Ian Dobesh. He was born on planet Holstein to a family of terraforming engineers. He grew up on a nice world, safe and protected from any danger. But during his teenage years he, like many other boys of his age, grew bored with the calm and peace of Holstein. So, he eventually joined the Navy. As a fresh new recruit he was one of the last group of RM officers drafted in service during the Rheinland-Liberty war. He faught in several battles for Texas, invaded New Hampshire with operation Klondyke and faught a bloody war for the honor of Kanzler and Rheinland. But after a very unfortunate battle in Hamburg, where RM lost the greaters number of ships during the whole war, he quit.

With an honorable discharge for medical reasons actually. But the medical reasons were actually severe PTSD(post-traumatic stress disorder) and a terrible fear of flying. For Ian it was a long trip from bad to worse. He started drinking, he left Rheinland, worked in Bretonia as a dock-worker, but got fired for excesive drinking. And trust me, when you get fired in Bretonia for drinking it means you're doing something really really wrong. Eventually he was out of work, out of money, with no bed and no booze, slowly dying on the streets of New London. And that's when he met a trader named Jason Nesmith, who recognized his face from one of the RM posters from the time of war. He told Ian the most important phrase of his life: "The ticket to the future is always blank!" He gave Ian another chance. Chance for a decent life. He gave him enough money to buy a fighter and employed him as his escort. Later when Ian paid of his debt, Nesmith introduced him to some Bounty Hunters he knew. And so Ian became a hunter.

Of course he still kept his ties with Jason. And so, when he heard that his friend's ship was brutally attacked without remorse and with no care for human life he took upon himself to find that animal that put Jasn and his son in hospital and for the first time in last decade he was out for blood. Nesmith was able to get a picture of the pirate Roc that attacked him and Ian spent several weeks pulling strings, collecting on old debts and making new ones just to get his hands on the pirate named Heidi.Corefall Eventually one of her friends sold her out for some quick cash and Ian caught her in Cambridge. The battle was brutal. Heidi and a Corsair accomplice of hers against Ian. But Ian was driven by rage and his military skills helped him to emerge victorious.

And then it all came to a stalemate. Ian had the pirate girl in his hold, but she was armed and promised Ian that if he'll attempt a forced entry, she would shoot. Ian on the other hand promised, that if she attempts to escape he'll dump the escape pod out of the airlock and will blast it to pieces. And as always when the emotions cool off, they started to talk. First it was more of a one side taunting the other but eventually they got to the core of their argument. Heidi talked about her childhood and the fact that she never belonged anywhere nor was she ever wanted by anyone, not even by her parents, Ian talked about the war and that he doesn't want to kill or hurt anyone anymore. Eventually he told her the same phrase that Jason Nesmith told him on Planet New London, that "The ticket to the future is always blank!" and everyone gets another chance no matter how bad they think they are and how bad their life was. In the end Heidi climbed out of the pod crying and they embraced each other and cried to their heart's content.

Later on, after he made sure that Heidi was well and safe among the Bounty Hunters Guild, after giving one last toast to the funny ways in which the fate works, Ian climbed to the cockpit of his Orca gunboat and decided it was time for new adventures. And after a few months of hunting Ian found out that BH business was not for him anymore. Now in his forties Ian was looking for a calmer environment. He wanted to start a family, maybe buy a nice house in Liberty, have a safe and pleasant job that would still let him fly his "flying Porsche" but something where his life wasn't on the line every day, he wanted to get a steady job that was not paid by the head of a dead pirate, but to have a stable pay that he can bring home every month. He wanted job with free Saturdays and he wants a company of people of his age, not just young jocks with no family who only think and talk about kills, bounties, booze and women. And he has decided to give Interspace Commerce a chance to be what he wants.

"Heh, sure. Great dream that one was." Ian gave a last look to his own personal file. His ship computer must have been damaged by that last missile that got through his shields. What he asked for were some additional information about the Junker corvette in front of him that was just turning around after Ian's last attempt to disengage from the fight and bail out. However the Collector vhf that was accompanying the frigate didn't fall for his trick and it's beam weapons were doing their best to keep the Orca's shield from regenerating and his pilot surely had his finger on the Cruise Distruptor's launcher. In any case it didn't matter what file the old battered gunship displayed for him, because there was no way he was going to survive the corvette's next salvo.

At least this way he was given a last chance to look back at his life and remember all the good things that made it worth living. Certainly, there were some regrets, but overall Ian had a good life and he always knew he was gonna die somewhere in between the lanes. And at least he didn't die for nothing. A liner full of refuges got past this Junker Marauder's ambush and with him a Stork full of gold heading to Kusari. He knew that the Marauders were furious to see such a shipment of gold escape and he couldn't expect any mercy. But in the end it didn't really matter. Ian has led a good long life and age of 48 was very unusual among escort pilots and bounty-hunters.

As a last ditch effort Ian decided to activate his ship's main cannon and prepared for one salvo from all his guns that would hopefully take the heavy fighter with him into oblivion. Carefully aiming, Ian exhaled and set his rare Cheetah thruster at full throttle...

To be continued

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Disco has a way of bringing you back whether you want to or not. So yes, I'm back.
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