Outsider

[Laowai]

He stumbled out of the council chambers......


As he reached the ancient and vast doors before the final courtyard he stumbled against the doorway. He leaned against it painfully, cradling his side which split with agony, streaks of blood staining his shirt.
I'll be damned if i stumble here... he thought....

This had begun more than a week ago, a few weeks after he had been summoned to the Elder council to speak. His memory of the specifics was..... vague.


He had woken up on a surgeons' bed. The unmistakable smell of a hospital filing his nostrils.
He woke up with a start..

"Where am i!??!!" he cried out, straining against the restraints that held him fast to the bed in which he was lying."Hold it, hold it... easy" a Dr next to him spoke, his hand gently on his chest and steadying him against the sudden movements which he was trying to make. "Take it easy brother, you're on Crete, but you have had a mishap... rest".....

The Dr steadied him with trained words, But Laowai struggled to recall how he had even arrived at this point. His last coherent memories placed him at the helm of the Outsider, his newly bought Corsair gunship.... they had been in Omicron Delta, and had engaged an unknown enemy. His first recollection was bounty hunters, but then, his Helmsman had called out the dreaded cry:

"NOMADS"

He tried to concentrate, to see through the haze in his memory and remember the battle.. He recalled a pair of nomad gunboats trying to broadside him. He remembered flanking them and out gunning one, its hull finally being cracked by his Brothers from Yaren, scrambled to attention in Titans. He remembered the second falling to the Outsiders' guns. An unmistakable explosion filling his view screen as the gracefully illuminated blue vessel erupted in a rude expulsion of atmosphere and organisms.... its contents spewing into open space.
Some of his last conscious memories were of his helmsman crying out "Nomad Battleship entering our co-ordinates, they are engaging"

He vaguely recalled the console on his command chair shorting out. He had turned quickly to his XO for an update on the Nomad command vessels' position when the front navigation panel in front of his helmsman had exploded in a violent eruption of metal, super alloys and electronics, showering the small bridge with lethal shrapnel

The Helmsman, knocked from his chair by the initial shock of impact, avoided the worst of the blast. Laowai, in his position in the command chair immediately behind the helmsman had worn the brunt of it. It hit him full square in his torso, his ceremonial Corsair command garments absorbing almost none of the impact.
His sides and chest erupted in spurts of blood and the restraint on the captain's chair, neatly severed by the shrapnel, dropped him to the floor.
Against his will, he collapsed onto the deck in front of him

He recalled the terror on the faces of his young crew, the uncertainty. As he lay there, semi conscious on the deck of the Outsider, its' 8 strong bridge crew looking to him for leadership, he spat out a desperate command:

"Engage cruise engines, target the nexuses in their shields, ramming speed."
The young men and woman around him hesitated, and he sat up, gripping the arm of his helmsman, who had left his post to offer support to his elderly fallen captain...
Laowai grunted against the agony that gripped him....

"Dammit, you are Corsairs, RAM THE BASTARDS"

The helmsmen, Alberto, who had proven himself time again on the bridge of Laowai's Cruiser, the Xibanya Nuren, hesitated for only a moment. Releasing his fallen Captain he leapt up and echoed his captain's orders.
"Engage cruise engines" he screamed. "Come about and prepare to ram the Nomad vessel"



Laowai recalled seeing a violent explosion on the Outsider's viewscreen, a swarm of Corsair Titans and Preatoriens arching gracefully across his vision, and he lost consciousness.

He awoke. in an infirmary on Crete. His personal comm link beeping a message from the Corsair Elders.

"you are required to attend the council session on the date of..."
[/b][b]


And so he had....


After stating his final piece, his injuries, barely attended, had started to take their toll.


As he stumbled out of the Council chambers, he thought of his crew. The young and houseless Corsairs he had selected for the Xibanya Nuren. He knew in his current state, he could not command the vessel, and he did not know how to break the news to them easily. They relied on him, for he was one of the only corsairs that they knew would speak for the poor and houseless Corsairs that endevoured for a brighter future amongst their people. He was the only one, despite his status as an Outsider, despite his mixed heritage as a half Corsair and half Kusari.... who had fought for them, and brought them wealth, honour and fortune.


This would not be easy.


He sat in his hangar. The imposing bulk of the Xibanya Nuren behind him. Its shadow covering the scarred hull of the Outsider, which shadowed the much smaller hull of his Titan, the "Old Laowai":
" i am sorry my friends, while i am like this, i cannot command you, and i cannot lead you"

He had said to his crew. " I am sorry, but i will not risk your lives on our voyages, unless i am truly fit enough to command you"


The parting had been emotional. His crew had no status, beyond the money he had brought them. They had no hope of joining a noble house, such as the Brotherhood, or the Familia Benitez. They had trusted in him to make their own family names noble. Laowai felt, that while he had striven to advance his nameless crew, he had failed. He could not shake the belief that the Nobles of the Corsairs would forget the Albertos, The Ibanez's, the Regalos. the Holandas......The poor and clanless of the Corsairs, who lived for the honor of their people, but who fought the spectre of poverty far more than noble Corsair house member ever did.


He stood before them in his hangar, the shadow of the Xibanya Nuren, and the battle scared wreck of the Outsider behind them. "I am sorry my brothers and sisters" he spoke..... "Our noble venture together is at an end... for now, until i can command again..."

His crew muttered in disbelief and he went on : "Were i to try to continue now, in my current state....."

He paused, his emotions overwhelming him. Perhaps his views of the Corsair code of honour were old, as he had heard others whisper. perhaps it did not fit into the new version of who Corsairs were. But, he would always remain true to what his father had told him. And that was his legacy to his crew, he would not change it, nor sacrifice it, and even now, in his weakened state, unable to fly, he would still shout it from all the mountains of Crete.....

"Defend your brothers and sisters" He said sternly, 'never ever side with our enemies". He looked around the assembled in front of him...

"and never forget, you are Corsairs, and no matter what a council says, no matter what anyone says"

He paused, his wounds aching " You owe loyalty only to your own, we are the Children of Hispania, and we have a galaxy to claim,, our Elders claim they know our path". He coughed violently, the sound echoing around the hangar. "But they are not you, they have not suffered as you have, the do not know what it means to chase honour from a house that has no place....."

He grunted a final command to his crew. "You are Corsairs, the heart of our people and our nation. Never forget the honour that binds you to our Brothers and Sisters, even if others will"... He coughed violently, small flecks of blood spattering his shirt, Those who cradled him knew they must get to a hospital now. But he went on. "Command what you will" he spat," And do so with honour, your are the bravest and the best of the Corsairs that i have the privilege to serve with"


There was a loud cheer as his Helmsman Alberto and his Nephew, Donny Ren, helped him from the hangar. He Felt exhausted, he knew he needed rest, but he also knew that so much amongst his people was unfinished and unresolved.

His strength began to fail him. He looked up to his Nephew, the young Libertonian lad that when he was coherent he could not stand; "Tell your mother" he said simply.... and unconsciousness overtook him.

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