Commander Lucy Silsbury

[Incindre]

Character Description:

Name: Lucy Silsbury

Nationality: Bretonian

Appearance: Tall, Slim, Very attractive with long auburn hair and pretty but cold eyes.

Personality: Can't relate well to people due to lack of social exposure, is cunning and calculating with the ability to control and co-ordinate people due to her imperious stature. Doesn't smile often. Is tenacious and doesn't let things go.

Traits: Is an excellent pilot and a designer and engineer of the highest calibre. She is highly intelegent.

Idiosyncrasies: Only drinks Chai Masala tea and the occasional fruit tea, prefers Ginger biscuits over scones, has an unnerving manner of making the men of Bretonia who hit on her feel very sorry for themselves indeed.


The Background of BPA Commander Lucy Silsbury.

New London was never the industrial sector of Bretonia. Of course while the empire was expanding and before planet Leeds was discovered there were a number of large factories producing ships and equipment to colonise and build throughout the systems, but after Leeds was settled these production lines were turned to other uses such as cheap housing and business quarters.
Ship building happened mainly in space where it was more practical and the new Industrial powerhouse of the Leeds system tackled all equipment production.
However a few companies remained on planet New London, mainly R&D labs that got contracts from Home Office when they wanted to keep something close to their chests.
One of these labs seemed rather less successful then others, it sat hunched between a relatively empty apartment block and a chemical waste processing plant on the Southern flank of the Megatropolis
What once had been a long thin ship assembly line had been reconstructed into a roughly square building due to the change of street layout in that area. A corroded sign was bolted over the once proud lettering of the ancient Bee 1 production facility reading “McTiller Research”. The windows were blackened by grime and rust covered the huge door at the front.
This was the home and business of Martin Silsbury and his wife Amanda. Both gifted scientists, Amanda specializing in chemical and genetic engineering and Martin in engineering and design, they had bought the building in the hope of setting up a profitable Research and Development lab but their hopes, it seemed, had been misfounded.
This unlikely place was also home to their daughter, Lucy.

Growing up in the Southern end of the city does not make for good people skills as there are very, very few families that live there. That quarter of the city mainly dealt with day businesses that were supplied workers via a network of shuttles and trains originating in the East end.
As such Lucy did not develop very good social skills, instead devoting her time to building and designing and she became rather good at it. She herself, at the age of 15, designed an entirely new and efficient system inbuilt into the Spatial’s wing which provided self powering Cryogenic freezing; a method explored a few times by several large corporations but did not have the patience to develop a regulating system preventing the Cryo-tubes from becoming too cold.

Small jobs such as these kept the company ticking over but no contracts from home office came in to give the company the boost it needed, (or so she thought, but that’s another story). Martin taught his daughter everything he knew about design and engineering and through the years of having nothing else to do she became incredibly proficient in both fields. Every spare moment (these, unfortunately for the company, were quite often) she could be found in her own work area modifying ship control’s and equipment and attempting to get them patented; however, until a few years before the Kusari began their campaign through the Tau systems, these developments developed only small amounts of interest... that is until an Officer of the Bretonian Armed Forces appeared at the small personnel door cowering beside its huge counterpart at the front of the building.
The Officer was of slim build, average height with a forgettable face and he seemed intent on ignoring Martin and proceeding to where he could see Lucy fluidly operating a compression binder at her expansive work bench.

“Miss Silsbury?” he asked in an impassive voice.
By this time Lucy was 19 years old. She was slim and attractive with long auburn hair and eyes that were unnervingly pretty but cold and calculating at the same time. She looked up at the man with these eyes noticing the lack of ID tags and badges which were pretty standard on BAF uniforms.
“Lieutenant Brigsdon, BAF; The Bretonian Armed Forces have taken note of a couple of your scanner designs and we wish to trial one on a ship of ours”.
Her face remained motionless but a single eyebrow rose slightly to show interest.
“Which model did you want?” She asked in a well enunciated accent.
Lieutenant Brigsdon opened the palm of his left hand and flicked his thumb over a small circular device strapped there, a holographic 3D image detailing a box with cables running to an ellipse dish, annotations and arrows moved around the rotating image which then zoomed out to present the insertion of the receiver into a custom bored hole into a Hussar light fighter. Above the image the title floated, K6 V2.
“Interesting choice” Lucy mused aloud as Brigsdon closed his fingers on top of the device and ceasing its projection, “I designed the K6 to be efficient at picking up Kusari engine echo’s, I believe catching Kusari smugglers is the field of the BPA not the Armed Forces.”
The man’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, “What we do with it is our concern” he stated with a small stress on the ‘our’.
“You will install it on one of our Templar’s which will be here in exactly three hours” he continued checking his watch; he then turned on his heel and made to leave.
Lucy was not the type to simply let a person walk away without getting all the information she wanted out of them. “Lieutenant”, she said in an imperative tone that evidently impacted on her target, someone used to giving the orders, “You do realize that this scanner is very expensive, that’s the reason the BPA were not interested in purchasing it”.
The man stopped and stared ahead for a moment before spinning around. He looked around the entire factory with a look of mild interest. “Rest assured you will be paid in full” he said as he stared past her at the chemical gear which her father had bought and fixed up a few years ago.
With that he again turned on his heel and strode out of the building into the muggy air.

Three hours later the roar of a Templar’s engines shook the factory and Martin raced to open the huge spacecraft door at the front. The massive slabs of hinged steel squealed as they were dragged into the ceiling space by ancient motors. The Templar drifted inside and set down on one of the functional hover pads, blowing away small tools and centuries of grime.
Amanda pushed a large ship ladder over to the side of the fighter.
The officer flying jumped out but kept his helmet on so Lucy could not tell who he was, however he made his way over to Martin and handed him a letter and apparently exchanged a word or two with him before exiting out the still open spacecraft door.
Her father gave her the thumbs up indicating she should begin work and then retreated into the office area which had been converted and extended to incorporate the Silsbury home, where Amanda had returned and was no doubt already fretting over the accounts.

Lucy began her job, boring out a hole under the cockpit window and fitting the strangely shaped dish and appropriate cabling linking the processing box to the cockpit display and controls and lastly running a high power cable from the energy hungry scanner to the power supply.
She jumped out and climbed down the ladder to retrieve the data crystal containing the software to activate her contraption and herself staring at the Templar in awe. She ran a delicate finger over several scars and burns of battle that tainted the hide of the metal beast. She began to imagine what it would be like to fly one of these things in a fire fight and found that she couldn’t imagine anything more exciting. She shook her head as if to dislodge the thoughts that were distracting her and grabbed the crystal from her meticulous filing and storage system at her work place.
She ascended for the final time into the cockpit of the Templar and installed the software. The status readout was blinking 100% but for some reason she couldn’t leave, just yet.
She had to know what it felt like.

The Templar is quite an old ship and when it was built security was not paramount, and as such left an intelligent young lady little resistance against unauthorised starting. The panel covering all the electronics was still open and all she had to do was to reach around behind to where the ignition systems were located and twist the appropriate cable.
The ships engines fired up much to the surprise of Martin and his wife who just about dropped their tea cups in surprise. The fighter rose into the air creating an ecstatic feeling within her and she grasped the dual control joysticks and turned the machine to face the open doorway. For the first time in very many years a smile crept across her face, the effect was spectacular, an event that would become a cherished and sought after thing among her future colleagues.
She could feel the raw power surging through the ship and was about to push the joysticks into the forwards position and take the first flight of her life above the factory tops of the South Megatropolis, until her parents flagged her down and hit the controls to lower the door.
After she powered the ship down again she tried to explain to them that she was just checking to see if the scanner worked but they didn’t quite believe her.

The mysterious pilot returned again the next day, spoke briefly with Martin and then vaulted into his ship and flew out when the spacecraft door was opened the fully. The rain fell as it often did onto the city and the noise on the roof was deafening but the roar of the Templar’s engines was all that filled Lucy’s ears as she walked to the entrance and watched the ship jet away.

Her pay check was deposited into her Neural Net account the next day.

She quizzed her father on the contents of the letter he had received when the pilot first arrived but he deferred the question and said something about it being unimportant and Lucy hadn’t the heart to interrogate him further.

Lucy was infatuated with the thought of flying from that day onwards and rushed to the back of the factory, a place full of junk from the last couple of companies that operated out of the building.
She squeezed herself between large robotic welders and steel moulds until she had reached the back wall and there she found what she wanted, remnants of several incomplete B1’s from the factory’s glory days. For the next few months she spent her time dredging parts from the back of the pile and cobbling together her own ship, supplementing it with her own modifications and inventions. She couldn’t afford to buy a ship so she spent her money on parts that she didn’t have or couldn’t build and after six months of constant work she had a ship.
It wasn’t pretty, the metal was rusty in the places that hadn’t been grinded, the engines would never be reliable and she had to do with a very weak shield, but the important thing was that it worked... at least in theory.

During this time her parents had been refining the chemical area and it now resembled something functional and indeed Amanda was working on several things but they neglected to inform their daughter of what was happening. That suited her fine however.

One morning, after discussing the dangers of attempting flight in her ship and redoing vacuum and hull integrity tests with her father, it was decided that it was her time to fly. Martin knew it was her passion and encouraged her.
The ‘Bee 1.4’, as it had been christened, awaited its pilot.

Lucy clambered into the now familiar cockpit and took a deep breath, she pushed the ignition button and the junk yard ship shuddered into life. She gunned the engines and pulled the control sticks up and in turn the machine creaked and groaned as it lifted off the hover pad. She did some quick pre-flight checks and noted that all systems were showing green on her upgraded display.
“Well, this is it” she muttered to herself as she jammed the old pilot helmet she had purchased over her head and connected it to the ‘intelligent filter’ Oxygen tank and checked to make sure all the valves were working. She clipped her harness on and slid the throttle up to an acceptable speed and moved past her father who was standing by the open hangar door and saluting. She returned the salute and then she was outside.
It was if the universe was rejoicing as she was, there was no rain and sun was shining through patches of grey cloud, a rare occurrence on Planet New London. Again she pulled the control sticks straight up and the ship raised up above the roofs of the surrounding factories providing her with a never before seen view. Another rare smile was spreading across her face.
She eased the throttle up to maximum and she flew towards the queue awaiting clearance to leave the atmosphere through the docking ring.

The next year and a half was spent flying, she visited asteroid fields and learnt how to dodge, weave and pull stunts that some pilots never would dream of. She saw plenty of Armed forces pilots around and she looked in envy at their shiny Paladins and powerful Templars but consoled herself with the knowledge that neither of these ships could execute manoeuvres that she could in her home built fighter.

All was perfect in Lucy’s world, she was doing what she loved, the business seemed to be doing just fine without her and the BAF had shown interest in her scanners and had made an order for one hundred. She had constructed an assembly line and production was now easy, though not much profit was made in the sales due to the escalating prices of Iridium, an important component in her scanner. Though she was sure that with a little pestering, she could extract enough money from her father to purchase a sturdier ship. She considered becoming an escort pilot but she didn’t particularly like the idea of flying with large ships that seemed to say “Pirate Me” and trying to defend transports against hordes of Molly’s and other riff raff.

But she didn’t mind too much what happened in the future, as long as she could continue to fly and design what she wanted while still getting fed and having a rent free home.

This idyllic universe was shattered by the announcement of war with Kusari. She felt guilty that she had spent her life messing around and only being concerned with her and her family’s welfare; now Bretonian citizens in the Tau systems were in increasing danger and she felt obliged to help in any way she could.
She was an excellent pilot and the BAF could use someone of her skill she supposed. A nagging voice in her mind kept bothering her though, it was a voice she didn’t like, but it was undeniably a part of her. “You don’t want to help people, you just want a new ship, that’s what it’s about; that’s what it’s always been about”. She cleared her head though and made an application to the Armed Forces who seemed keen to have her, until the recruitment officer looked at his monitor and informed her that they had no ships left.

Lucy was determined to do her part though and realized that war was the perfect distraction for minor criminals and other parties to attack Bretonia while it was unprepared.
She decided the best place for her to be was in the Bretonia Police Authority as they were critically understaffed (and she got a new ship).

Her application was accepted and said her goodbyes to her parents, gathered her notes and a few useful tools, and put the Bee 1.5 to rest at the back of the factory hidden by the pile of scrap.
She was found new quarters as a Junior Constable and began her patrols, mostly alone as she didn’t understand how to interact with other members of the BPA. Soon she had proven her worth a number of times over and had raced through the ranks faster than any officer had before due to her outstanding flying skills and ability to co-ordinate as seen in the first Buccaneer incident.
With rank Commander she moved out of her small apartment and into much larger and nicer quarters nearer The Hub.

It was then things started to escalate...

Such a shame too, she was just beginning to settle in...

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Currently Retired

Signs and Portents