Alex Rowe

[NiCAD]

Some time ago, at a time separated from the present by an unimportant multitude of horrors, I lost my first soldier in combat. On that day, Freeport nine was attacked. At 1200 hours, FP9 control radioed me to report eight unknown contacts entering Omicron Theta from the Omicron Alpha jump hole. They didn't guess at the identity of the contacts, but everybody knew. The Nomads had finally made a move.

I ordered all six of my eagles to land on asteroids in the field, keeping out of the sight and scanner lines of the Nomad ships. Acting as bait, I turned my own gunboat to block the projected path of the enemies. After some time, we picked them up on scanners, confirming their identities. As my missile-boat sported only two laser-based weapons, it was well equipped to fight the Nomads . . . but not eight of them. In the opening salvos, I destroyed one Nomad fighter, and they completely eliminated my shields. As they passed, however, my fighters scrambled, catching the enemies by surprise, and killing two Nomads. With their numbers reduced to five, the fight became more even. It was a bloody dogfight in the asteroid field, and we barely defeated them.

In the aftermath, the true horror and ferocity of the Nomads became apparent: I had lost three of my six fighter pilots, and a fourth showed symptoms of Nomad infestation. He requested suicide, a right never denied to such unfortunates.

Certainly, I was decorated for the success. Statistically speaking, my victory was incredible: It was not every day that one manages to destroy eight Nomad fighters with inferior numbers . . . But no decoration will revive my dead subordinates, and no new recruit can replace their presence on the team. A hole was torn in my heart that day . . . A hole which no medal can hide.

Transcriber's Note: This is probably where Rowe's insanity began. We're all familiar with the process, I'm sure. Depression leads to psychological instability, and from there the whole house of cards that is the mind of man falls down. Silly humans.