tom watched the ceremony from his templer. he nodded in aproval at the ensgins. leutenents, he corrected to himself. he fired his cannon ball missile at the kusari mercenary he was fighting in.
as he turned his ship about, trying to get a better firing position to fire. he snuck a quick glance at the small screen. he continued blazing away at the mercenary's ship.
when the fleet admiral announced the promotion of jack, and hobart. he stopped firing and cheered.
the mercenary turned about and fired a mini razer at toms templer.
as his ship's warning lights went of, tom grinned, thnking about what hobart would would have said if he had stopped firing during basic training.
he fired his cruise disrupter to disable the mercenary's engine's for a second or two.
as the prime minister announced austins promotion to leutenent, tom froze for a second.
he regained control, and fire'ed a missile, which blew apart the mercenary's ship.
he then took out his flask, and toasted to all those who were promoted. even austin. and he toasted to all his comrades who had died, and to whisky. and to meny other things.
the remains of the mercenary's ship floated near toms ship. tom nudge'd them with his ship. sending them on a course that would bring them to glasgow station in a few months, he hoped that he would be there to catch the ship
' Wrote:<span style="font-family:Century Gothic">Violence is Golden</span>
"I want a shuttle ready to go as soon as all this..." Bader, mockingly, waves his finger at the lavish decorations, "...is over."
...
...
Commodore Bader hobbled his way back down the quiet corridors of the Grimsby to his quarters.
"So much time wasted on this damnable leg! Must have been a fool then to have risked such a dumb move." With an empty look in his eyes Douglas paused. "At least I am still here."
An alarm sounded. "Perimeter breech. All hands, ready stations."
Douglas looked down at the new pins he held in his hands, "Now an evil more menacing than Kusari shows itself to us. May the Queen's grace be with us." He then spun around on his peg and headed for the bridge placing the pins as he rushed.
The elderly.. Ensign.. stood to before the Fleet Admiral.
"Ensign Richard Bucket", began the Fleet Admiral.
"Sir!", exclaimed the Ensign.
The Nelles rubbed his eyes, then began to speak, in a tone indicating that he was struggling with the comprehension of something utterly and completely, well, ******ed, as Aiden Kelley used to say.
"Your records show you to be 25 years old..."
"Do they sir?"
"And yet your commanding officer indicates you just celebrated your 95th birthday.."
"Yes we did sir! Right good party sir! Proper drunk, the boys got me! And a woman too sir!.."
Percy cut him off, a little disturbed. "Now, do you know how this obviously grievous error in your file happened?"
The man frowned, "Don't rightly know sir. They've always been bad with my records. Back in '58 was the first time they lost 'em, and I dare say they managed a few times since. Guess I keep falling through the cracks, sir."
Percy just stared. "Back in 758, as in, 59 years ago?!?"
Bucket frowned again. "That seems about right, yes sir. I never liked to complain too much about it sir. Not much for making a fuss. As long as I have a ship to fly, and I always did. Sir."
Percy shook his head in disbelief, then stood up.
"Well Bucket, I am promoting you to Lieutenant. I daresay its about time. And a Veteran's Badge, for 25 years of service. I calculate we owe you about 3 of those.."
Bucket beamed. "Thank you sir! Glad to have been of service all these years, sir! Its not a bad life, you know."
Percy dismissed the proud, new (old?) Lieutenant, then sat.
If we win this war, he thought, it'll because of tough blighters like him. If we lose it, it will be because of our abomination of a bureaucracy.
Lt.Jare.Kalo found a anonymous e-mail of a recording of the parade, however it had a certain part played over and over again. It was the part where he had been promoted, and he realized they had pronounced his name wrong. again. Every time he heard his name someplace like this, it was pronounced Karlo, not Kalo....
Quote:"'Cause, remember: no matter where you go... there you are."