Voyages of INS Roanoke and its crew

[Erremnart]

All Good Things... 1

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Insurgent battlecruiser INS Roanoke was making its way from California to Texas. Increased navy activity as they started moving some of their assets to Magellan forced them to sneak through the system, hide behind asteroid fields, planets and moons, and to rely on their cloaking device when moving in the open.


Virginia sat in her office and was smoking one of her vanilla cigarettes again as she was sitting behind her desk and waited for XO to arrive.
Heavy naval footsteps finally came to her door and her executive officer Ben Sheffield ventured in. Virginia almost immediately gestured him to sit down, "Great, I wan-", she said, but he interrupted her, "I know. And I want to resign.".
Virginia looked at him with surprised and blinked several times as she processed his statement, "Resign? Why?".
"My wife wants to take opportunity and fly with kids to Gallia, be as far away from Liberty as possible and start a new life.", he replied and handled her pad with his resignation request, "I know what are you going to do, Crash, but I can't be labeled as traitor... for the sake of my family.".

She sighed deeply and took a long draw from her cigarette as she looked at him with disbelief. Ben was her right hand, they became good friends and she needed him on her side for her change of flag. She looked directly into his eyes, "How do you know?".
"If we are going to evacuate our refugees to Crayter and Gallia - that also means that our personnel will be following them eventually and I can't imagine seeing you in Crayterian or Gallic colors, Crash.", Ben replied to her question and chuckled.
"At least I'll save you from humiliation when I'd finally beat you in our games of chess.", she tried to joke, but sadness got into her voice. She sighed again and looked away from him to recollect her composure and looked back at him, "Do I even have a chance of changing your and Beth's minds?".
"Yes, you have. The same one as we have when we try to change your mind, Crash.", he replied sadly, but also sternly as he was never fond of her stubborness.
"Fair point.", she replied quietly and looked on his resignation form. She always took him for granted, two legionaires who were to fight together, at least from her perspective. But in reality, Beth and their kids, they were his 'comrades for life'. She wasn't even angry at him or them, just sad and abandoned.

"Do you know that in times of war...?", she wanted to remind him about current war status, but couldn't even finish the sentence.
"I know, but I also know that you don't care about regulations as others do, so if you want to do it - you will do it.", Ben replied.
"I'll do it.", she nodded and looked at him with pleading eyes, "But... will you help me, please?". Ben looked surprised by this request - she was not ordering him, she was genuinely asking for help.
Ben shook his head, "I'm not joining them, Crash.".
"I'm not asking you to do that.", she said quietly and continued, "All I want is to have you by my side when it happens... officially already off duty, so you won't be blamed, but I'll need you to help me to retain control over the ship, Ben. Then... you can take one of those remaining ships in hangar and fly to Gallia, I promise.".
Ben stood up and straightened his back, walking around her office as he was weighting his decision. All of this was against his beliefs and his code of honor, and he was not fond of her possible Xenos friends at all.
"Yes.", Ben sighed and nodded at her, "I'll help you". If this will be their last battle together, so be it.