Tides of Change

[Cat]

Several Order fighters patrol the nebula. Unknown vessels appear on the radars. Supposedly nomads. Confirmed. The fight begins. Suddenly more vessels appear. The Core. They stay away, watching. Watching the Order fighters being slowly overwhelmed. Screams on the comms. "Need some cover here... They got me! - Eject, eject now!" Static. Almost no hope. The Core moves in. No idea what to expect. The nomads keep emerging. Need to retreat. Some hesitation, but the orders are given. That day was better than it could be.

You should stop recalling that fight, Brian. Such things won't help to fulfil the mission. Concentrate, corporal Scott, come on... Come on...

- Corporal Scott, come on, launch the ship.
Brian suddenly returned to the real world. He was in the docking bay of Islay station, in the system of Edinburgh. The voice that interrupted his thoughts belonged to the docking dispatcher of Islay. Brian hit the button and the ship left the hangar. It'd take him some time to return home.

Home... I wonder where is that now... Leeds? - But I don't remember much about it, although it's my birthplace. Los-Angeles? - Don't deceive yourself, Brian, you haven't been there for years. The carrier you served on during your Navy days? - It was blown to dust. Toledo? - That sounds good, but you spend more time in the cockpit of your fighter than there.

Not that he disliked Toledo - that icy planet had its own charm, so to speak. But he really didn't have much time to even visit it. After the battle he has just been recalling things were going worse and worse.

Don't deceive yourself - the inner voice reminded. - things have begun going worse long ago, and you know that. No matter what victories I... we achieved, the Guild Core was still standing firm and their attacks were closer and closer to Kiribati asteroid field where the jump hole to the cradle of the Order was positioned. Some of the most desperate Bounty Hunters even ventured into Minor, but they still were repelled.

Desert. The endless desert full of dust, dark matter, stars and planets. Kansas. What would the nomads do there? The intel was wrong that time. No nomad vessels have been sighted, and Brian spent quite a lot of time investigating the system. At least it means that we can still hold them at bay. But the cost is getting ridiculously high.
What really annoyed Brian is the fact that he couldn't even take the shortest break. Not that he needed it that much at the moment - they train people good enough at West-Point, so the soldier could work overtime. But not every day! Once Brian returned from his last mission in Kansas he didn't even have time to land on Toledo - he refueled his ship and had to return to Liberty strainght away - the scouting team that had been sent before Brian returned needed assistance.

The scouting team had to go to the Independent Worlds again (Couldn't have told me when I was there already, huh?). But that time the Libertonians were ready. They deployed a small fleet that could effectively lock down the entire system of California. Only by pure luck corporal Scott and major Golanski managed to escape. But the pursuit was behind them all the way, so they had to move farther, to Leeds and Edinburgh, in order to lose them.

And now it was time to go home... The memories stepped away as the Bastet activated jump drives and flew straight into the Leeds jump hole.

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