JJ Flint

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JJ Flint

On the Manhattan landing pad sat a used and banged up Starflier. Two men were talking. One was a stocky build of a man, about five foot seven and looked like he was in his sixties. The other was an LPI detective.

..dont care what you did in Bretonia, you are in Liberty now. I am going to issue you a standard civ ID. Take a couple of missions and then we will see where your allegiances lie. Unless.You wish to properly tell us why a BAF officer just tosses away his commission and jumps a transport out of the area?, from the Detective.

I am not at liberty to say Detective. replied the man.

Just the same. All inquiries sent to Bretonia have either been stonewalled or they dont know you. If you were a criminal, there would be a warrant out, but nothing has came of it. Keep your nose clean while you are in Liberty Mr. Flint said the Detective as he walked away.

That was a memory from eighteen months ago. Thought the man called Flint as he leaned against his newly acquired transport sitting on the same pad as before. Born sixty five years ago as James Jacobie Flint, the son of yeomanry standing, he was now known as only, Flint. No Ensign, no Lieutenant, no Commander, no Captain, no Mister, no Master, and no Sir, just Flint. He had entered the Bretonia Armed Forces at the age of eighteen. The BAF had become his life. He had been married and had a son, then divorced. He had found out quickly that fighters were not for him but his instructors were surprised that he could choreograph an entire battle on the fly in large craft simulations and give the necessary orders quickly to get the job done. He was on track to be assigned to the command of a battleship by the end of his career. That life ended three months before that day on the Manhattan star port..


He had been the XO of a Bretonia Destroyer on a deep space exploration mission. It had been rumored that after this tour, he would become the XO of a battleship to be named later. The original XO had to take some Family Leave and they needed him to fill in for the rest of her tour. The Captain was a member of the Royal line and had slightly differing political opinions from the ruling royal line. Being a Thorn in the side caused him to get this mission for the time being. This was the first time that the Admiralty had let him go beyond the borders of New London. The Captain had taken up drinking heavily along with his other vices and it was rumored that the XO had joined him on numerous occasions. After the deep space transfer, Flint reported to the Captain in his cabin. Upon arrival, the Captain appeared to be a little under the weather and a little put out, so to speak. Before being able to officially report in, the Captain started with, So, you are the new Executive Officer. Here is our mission briefing. Run the ship however you wish. Send me the reports and Ill either sign them or I will send them back to you. Now get out of my cabin.

A stunned and confused XO stepped out of the Captains Cabin and closed the door. He shook himself and thought, I had better get to work.
That had been three months before. Today the crew was in good spirits and the ship was in good shape. As the XO of the lead ship, he found out that he was the ranking officer of the Task Force, which contained one other destroyer and four gunboats. Since this was a deep space exploration mission, no fighters had been assigned. He had worked with the other ships in maneuvers and drills. As he retired for the evening he was feeling good about the entire command.

The XO woke up when he was halfway between his bunk and the far wall of his cabin with all alarms blaring. The General Quarters alarm. The Collision alarm. The There is a HOLE in the HULL alarm. Grabbing his uniform and trying to dress on the way, he made it to his assigned battle station in the Auxiliary Control Room.

REPORT, as he entered.

CRUISE ENGINES DOWN!!, MULTIPLE SHIPS ON CLOSE SCAN!! HULL BREACH IN PORT CARGO HOLD!!, SHIELDS AT 15 PERCENT!!!, ALL WEAPONS ENGAGING BUT CAN ONLY COORDINATE WITH HALF OF THEM!!, DAMAGE REPORTED ON ALL DECKS!, NO POSITIVE ID ON HOSTILE SHIPS!! came the reply from various stations.

Orders from the bridge? he asked quickly.

Sir,..The .The Bridge is gone came the yelled but subdued reply.

Well if the Captain made it the bridge before it was hit then I am screwed for letting a member of the Royal line die. Flint thought to himself as he sent out the order, Have the Task Force make hard to port with all possible speed and try to get us in that asteroid field!

As they entered the asteroid field the hostilities stopped as fast as it had started. Bewildered, Flint asked the comm officer to contact the other ships to find out their status.

Sir, the short range comms are working but there is no response. the comm office responded in a scared voice.

Scanners. Flint asked?

Sir, the scan record shows that over one hundred torpedoes were coming in at once and our position in relation to the other cruiser saved us from being destroyed. Sir, the rest of the force is gone the scan officer reported. He went on to report, The hostiles identity was all over the board. Rogues. Lane Hackers. Corsairs. Rhineland. Kusari. Bretonia Armed Forces. Mollys. Sir, it seems that every fraction in Sirius space was involved in the attack.

About two hours later, damage control had sealed up most of the ship and engineering got the engines back up. They returned to the scene of the battle and was able to rescue a few survivors, find some extra food and supplies and some possible evidence of who or whom had attacked them.

A couple of hours later the Ship Medical Officer had come to the ACR requesting to talk to the XO.

I was with DC when they cut into the Captains Cabin. the SMO said.

And questioned Flint?

Oh he had a few bumps and bruises, but according to the tox screen, he was beyond drunk at least an hour before the attack. the SMO sarcastically put it.

It took 25 days to reach Southampton Shipyard and in that time the Captain had come out of his drunkenness and was joking with the crew and officers about the whole thing like it was a good experience. When the Ship was in sort range comm with the shipyard the Captain had instructed the comm officer to send a pre encrypted report. The comm officer had a copy of the report un-encrypted report and as soon as the Captain left, hurried to find the XO.

Flint, upon reading the Captains version of the incident, calmly reached into his pocket and handed the Comm Officer a chip and said Please encrypt this and send ASAP, please.

Unknown to Flint, upon his return to his station the Comm Officer found the SMO wanting to send a full medical report and requesting aid for the casualties.

When the ship slipped into dock at Southampton, it was under the guns of five battleships. As soon as the dock was complete the Captain walked off and was escorted to the first Armored Transport which took off for New London under heavy escort. Once the medical causalities were taken off the XO and all ship officers were told to board the next Armored Transport to New London. On the pad at New London they were told to report to the Admiralty at 0500 and it was now midnight local time.

He had been sitting in the waiting lounge since he stepped off the transport. He had watched as his fellow officers had arrived shortly before 0500. They had been instructed to not sit together nor have any conversations by the door guard. It was noon when he was showed into the Grand Admirals office. The Admiral was sitting behind his desk rubbing his eyes.

Commander Flint, Reporting as ordered. Sir.

Have a seat Commander. said the Admiral. As Flint sat down he continued, I am sorry to say that may be the last title you will ever have in the BAF. But thanks to your SMO, unless this interview goes badly, you wont be going to jail.

With a stunned look, Flint asked in a shaky voice, What happened. Sir.

Your Captains report was sent directly to Her Majesty herself with a cc to us at the Admiralty. He is like a sixth or seventh cousin or something. Well her Majesty needs his little clique of political muscle to hold a few deals together. I was reading your report when she commed me to get my rear over there. I was on my way when I was intercepted by the BAF Chief Medical Officer. He had your CMOs report in his hand and was red in the face. I told him to come along. We got right in to see the queen and court. She was livid. She read your report and also the your CMOs report and really began to turn all kinds of colors. We were delayed having our heads handed to us when the Head of the Foreign Office came in and said to her, We have a bigger problem. A clerk, in the CMOs office has been arrested by Intelligence for passing on the CMOs report to the Mollys and the IMG. Her Majesty was almost into a rage by then. said the Admiral.

Looking Flint in the eye, he continued, The report from your Chief Medical Officer may have saved all of your lives. They at first wanted to just take you and all the officers, enlisted and even the causalities straight to BPA Newgate. Your CMO is Her Majestys first cousin and you may have noticed that he was the first one in my office this morning. He became a little excited on how this was going to be treated. So, on my comm, he called Her Majesty in front of me and told her that in the event of his disappearance to Newgate or someplace else a copy of his report would go to every House and newsie out there. The Queen said that he was under arrest for threatening the Queen. Then they talked for a little bit and came to an agreement. For his silence, he would become the CMO at BPA Newgate. The enlisted would be pensioned off as full retirees and the officers would resign and be paid a lump sum to leave Bretonia for a while and if they returned and said anything to anybody they would join the Doc at Newgate.

Taken aback by all of this cloak and dagger, Flint had to ask, Admiral, what about my son and grandson?

The Admiral smiled, Your son is on the Norfolk, right? Flint nodded, And your grandson is in the Academy right?

Yes sir.

They may have a few rough spots but me and a few other real officers will try to look out for them. the Admiral replied. Now I need you to sign this letter of resignation and you may pick up your other paperwork from my clerk on the way out. I wish I didnt have to do this James. You are a good officer. softly said the Admiral.

Flint picked up his pay and was going down the line of clerks to the Lounge area when he noticed the trail of coats and tunics from the last clerks desk to the guard at the front door. He knew that these were the uniforms of the men and women that served with him and under him. The lounge was half full of officers waiting for ship assignments or needing to talk to a clerk about postings or pay issues. Following the lead of his officers, he began to remove his coat and tunic. By the time he got to the door he noticed that there was a different guard there and he had came to attention and offered a parade ground salute to him.

Flint looked at him and asked, When did it become custom to salute civilians? And when did a Sergeant Major ever stand guard duty in the BAF?

Still holding the salute the Sergeant Major cheerfully said, The BAF is not the Queen and I wanted to thank you and the officers under you for bringing Bretonias lads and lasses home. Sir.

Flint nodded to the Sergeant Major and he dropped his salute and reached out to shake Flints hand.

Thank you. Flint replied with a tear in his eye.

Sir, there is a car waiting to take you to the port.and good luck sir.

From New London he caught a ride on a ship bound for Manhattan. Upon arrival Flint looked for work but no one needed a ships officer with his unknown background. Since he had herd about the chance of mining silver in Colorado, he bought a Starflyer. He mined silver till he could afford a Rhino. On his first silver run to New Tokyo. He thought he may have a problem with the authorities being a displaced Bretonian in a Liberty tagged ship. But a few visits with the boarder stations and port authority he was told that as long as he hauled legal cargo to legal destinations, he would have no problems. He came across the X-Shuttle. It handled like a battleship and had moderate firepower.

Flint flew the X-Shuttle like a madman. A few pirates tried to take him but he gave them the slip. A few had him dead to rights and he was able to pay a fee. On one stop in Manhattan he meet a guy from Houston, who was about his age and fronted him the money to get a decent transport over in Pittsburgh. He had tried to locate some of his fellow officers and ask them to join him if they wanted to. Three did. Engineer - Glen Fuller. Communications - Owen Fox. Weapons - Margret Spencer

More of this story to follow.