War Torn Start

[Miaou]

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1th of Febuary, 827 A.S. - New London System

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His hands gripped the control sticks, white knuckled. Gaze was forced to look forward, yet it was like an invisible string tried to pivot his attention to his left, to the slowly vanishing planet outside of the canopy of the cockpit. He made his decision. It was time. It was a long overdue need for him to start over. "Start over again," he thought sourly as he corrected himself.

To the newly purchased yet five year old Renzu Anki, Planet New London stood as a shrinking giant to the port side. That monument of stubborn tribalistic hate that he himself had come to hate. How it could try to pride itself on being better than the other houses yet do the same savagery it scoffed at.

Perhaps hate was too strong of a word.

Bretonia had changed. The war saw to that. Gallia's cursed resource gathering war and invasion saw to that. But for both sides to let so many people die. To let his people die. To let his home die.

This was a mistake.

His head shook. These thoughts haunted him in his nightmares, he need not give them more consideration. What he had to do was figure out if this was at all viable. If it even made sense. Whichever the case was he needed to get away from it all. He needed to think. For so long his focus was on regaining his home and everything he grew up to love. That focus twisted with the navy and armed forces, then was entirely stolen when the planet was glassed.

Instead of these thoughts, he went through his plan for the hundredth time. Rheinland. Rheinland would be away enough. He didn't care about the house or their ongoing political strife. He didn't need to. It was a place he can go where he could think and consider what he would do for the rest of his life. Clearly it wasn't being a career sailor. However, being an officer did give him at least something.

Space. He loved it. He loved driving a ship through the void, gawking at the nebula, drifting around asteroids. What he didn't like was how expensive it all was. Even with the pay he got from his service, doing this little trip put a massive hole in his account. He may have to pick up a job in Rheinland. Maybe that was the new start he needed.

The edge of the system. The jump gate to the Cambridge system was before him. Having been so wrapped up in his mind he hadn't noticed the time fly by. It was too late to stop now. He twisted his body to reach back to flip on a few internal systems. As he finished his gaze lifted to look out the canopy's window. It was a mistake. Planet New London. Even smaller than normal, it was still clearly there. That place, those people. He shouldn't have looked. He was never good at letting go.

Yet, he had to. Facing his flight console again a hand flicked the communication system to flag for permission to transit systems. A short wait and he was cleared. The gate opened letting him and a nearby convoy through. A sharp breath was all he could do as his Anki was guided into the gate and rapidly accelerated past light speed. The shaking was worse in such a small ship, he wasn't used to it. His eyes closed, his choice was made. To move on, to make a new start. There was no going back now.

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