Return of the Children

[Leo]

Keller landed near the platform on the very edge of the more populated areas of California Minor. I use the term, "populated" lightly. California Minor was, for the most part, a miner planet for Planetform. Most of the men and women stationed here were either shippers or miners for the company.

"You stupid f***ing worthless piece of a man!" we heard a woman scream as she kicked a man working on a transport. "I told you to equip the new turrets to the rear not the front! FIX IT." she said again. She seemed to have a rather bad temper. I made a note not to get too close to her.

"Victoria." Keller said as he approached. "Good to see you're still alive."

She turned to tongue lash Keller next, but stopped just as she opened her mouth, her eyes got as big as dinner plates.

"C-Commander?" she said squinting her eyes ever so slightly. "Is that you or have I been awake too long?"

Keller laughed that hearty laugh. "It's me, Victoria. Get your sh*t, we're going to get Schneider."

"But...where have you been?"

Keller smiled. "All in due time my dear, in due time. Get to your fighter, we lift off in ten."

* * *

I thought Keller was insane. He's a psychiatrist compared to his friend Victoria. The woman is flat out, insane. First she tried to shoot me because I was standing behind Keller because she didn't know who I was. THEN she tried to hit on me...then she went back to trying to kill me again because she thought I was a spy for Liberty. Then she was my friend.

I 'm not looking forward to being around her much.

Ho-sh*t. Liberty dogs coming up fast, gotta put this down.

* * *

The Navy dogs, I first thought were going to open up on Keller and Quinn without a second thought...but boy was I wrong. They were a couple of Keller's ex-members of the Children. They stated they had paid hefty credits left over from their bounty hunting days to get their reputations wiped clean and joined up with the Navy. Soon as they heard about the skirmish in California with the infamous "Jacob Keller", they came running to the system to find him. Seems the man has a draw about him...

The two men began telling Keller that the Liberty government knew he was alive now. They were expending millions of credits to find him and take him out. Keller cursed under his breath and began muttering about how he was sick of them meddling in his affairs.

"How many battleships are they sending for the search?" Keller asked.

"Just four right now." said the man they called Lucky, "They're sending out TONS of battalions and fighter wings trying to find you. California is crawling with them."

"We can out run them back to Coronado. I don't think they will follow us out of the Cortez system. Too far away from backup support if things go bad." Victoria said.

"Freckles," Keller said, acknowledging me for the first time since our decent to California Minor. "What do you think?"

"Me?" I asked.

"Yes, you."

"Well, I think that if there are tons of fighter wings roaming around the system looking for you and the signal your implants put out. We should cut through New York, through the badlands interference, and then cut back through Texas, California, then back to Coronado."

Everyone looked at me surprised.

"What? Just because I can't fly a fighter doesn't mean I don't know tactics."

I felt pretty smug right about that point.

---

You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.
The Banished Legion