Greetings. The name is Adolf Gilland, Bretonian by birth. Wouldn't guess it by the name but my da had a sick sense of humor. I grew up on New Cambridge, attended school just like the other lads, cept on holidays where I would join my dad's and mum's on their transport for Arcadian Inc. It was a small company my dad's come up with in his younger days. Anyways, I suppose this whole dibacle started when I was 7 years old. Alot of goings on was happening in Liberty and Rhineland. I remember my da shutting down his buisness and using his savings to buy a nice flat on the south side of the city. He would tell me stories at night of terrible people pushing where they need not be pushing, as to say, and then turn to my mum's with that worried look on his face. My father left the family 6 months into 800 A.S. I wasn't privy to the information of why at the time but I'm thankful I know now.
I continued with my studies. I would like to say I was a quick learner but nothing to write home about. I left school just before graduation, year 810 A.S to try and rebuild the company with mum's. When Larin (my father) left, he never came home. Perhaps this was the reason I quit school early. We got an old CSV and tried to rebuild the company with what earnings dad had left. It went well, mum watching over he lad with eyes gleaming, with what I thought was pride. 4 years later, I had settled well into the trading buisness. We had dealt with our share of pirates, usually simply with an exchange of credits. Everything was right as rain, until late one night I heard mum's weeping in her room.
I wish I would of never entered and asked her what was wrong. Everyone knew of the Nomad war when I was younger and how the order had swooped in and saved the day, as it were. Most of us honest merchants and starfairers noticed that liberty wasn't exactly herself either. Anyway, mum's told me the story of my father. How he had ran off to defend Bretonia and to join the order. The reason he never came back was after purchasing a small fighter craft and heading out to find the order, he and two other craft ran upon a nomad patrol near kusari space. The three men were untested in fighter combat, mum's said. All that was recovered was a side plate to da's fighter. I was at a loss, the feelings of abandonment by my father were gone and were replaced with...determination? I rushed off at once, against my mothers wishs and bought an old fighter.
It wasn't long before escort next to my mother's train felt right as rain. Trip after trip between Bretonia and Rhineland had filled me with a certain amount of confidiance, that now I would probley call foolhardy at best. I flew a Hussar most of my time between the trade lanes. A nice craft to say the least but not excatly what I was looking for. About six months later I realized why in short order.
Upon entering the Stuggart system everything was a green light, mom had banked slightly upon exiting the jump gate and was heading at a decent speed towards the trade lanes. Other vessels were comming and going as usual and nothing seemed amissed. The comm system crackled to life with the voice of a terrified merchant sent out a warning towards all ships in the system, "Corsairs seen breaking down the fields of the trade lanes." Finally, was the only thought that filled my adolecent mind. This was to be the third time Corsairs had made up pay for passage towards Rhineland and mum was always to ready to throw away the 2 million credits, in my opinion. This time I would make sure it was different.
The Corsair was there, sitting by the trade gate calmly. My mum's squeaky, nervous voice shot through the comms, "Just stay calm, its normal Adolf." The Corsair ship, a Titan, fired a 2 shots across our path and began the ritual of demanding money for passage, his attention slowly drifting towards my mothers train. I felt oppertunity had finally presented itself. I kicked the Hussar to maximum thrust and unloaded with my 4 blasters. My mothers voice screamed across the waves, "Please NO! Don't kill my son!" I barly heard it. My shots hit their mark but I was aghast at the readout, the Corsair Titan was barly touched and I knew my life was suddently in the balance. I banked my craft hard right and immeadetly started evasive maneuvers. Perhaps If I could get behind my foe things would equal out a bit. The world around me seemed to slow down. I'm guessing now the adrinaline and misiry of what I was seeing was to much for me to bare. I had returned to a course that I had played out often in my head, knowing I would find my oppisition there, his back turned and my crosshairs being brought to bare. The Titan wasn't there. A sudden terror took me, I'm guessing not unlike true first time combantants. My Hussar rocked violantly as a spray of blaster fire slammed into me from the side as the pirate coreened around in behind me. My last thought before the blasters ripped into my hull wasn't that I had failed in my fathers quest for the order or about my mums, acutally it was the fact I had left a pack of smokes on cardiff sometime ago....The world flashed.
I was lying on my back, aboard my mothers ship. The corsair was gone and mum was there next to me. She had her head in her hands and was crying softly. I sat up slowly, her head rising to look on my with worry, and responded casualy "what happened".....there was a pause, "And where is he?" My mothers expression never changed but the tears stopped flowing as she stared at me. As her look lingered, the worry in her eyes was replace, with an overwhelming sense of pride. I was stunned. "After he distroyed your ship," she started," He laughed and said at least you tried and told me to tractor in the pod." Her hands were shaking openly, "Said he was going back to the border systems. It didn't sound like a statment." I looked down at my length lying across the bed. I wasn't in bad condition just a few burises and a damaged ego. She finished the route and dropped me off at a medical facility in Cambridge.
She didn't say anything when she left, that puzzled me, still does. But the next day after my evaluation I walked out of the facility and ran right into an old family friend, Commander Gerhard Butler. I was elated, "Commander, is great to be seeing you.." my speach was cutoff with a wave of his hand, "I owe your family son and your mother has donated large amounts of money to the military in recent yeart. (My disblief was growing) Your mother asked me to bestow a favor on you boy, so get yourself to the landing pad and don't forget to check your account status. And remember son, what your father believed in and good luck." He turned and walked off. I was stunned, never before had he been brief with me and what was this favor? No clue, I done what he asked and headed towards the nearist terminal where I could check my account.
The stunning reception before didn't comprehend the shock now. A brand new Hussar was at the launch pad with my name on it and 20 million credits sat at my disposal. I knew now, this was my mothers gift, one more chance to make dad proud, even though the idea of it broke her heart. I got myself ready to depart and launched. Heading for the border systems. Over the course of the next 1 and 1/2 years I lost half my money, made a few friends out of the corsairs and lost a few more. Never lost my ship again though, which is a plus. I never seen my old combantant, that corsair that I first acosted and blew me out of the sky. Don't suppose I'll ever know what happened to him. But enough of that, I found myself following corsairs to edge systems and through a myraid of jump holes, through probley half the system.After that time had passed I said my fairwells and ran off to find what I could in the one place I never spent much time, Liberty.
I would like to say the chaps from liberty gave me a warm welcome but my first few days were spent hiding in the badlands with criminal persons from all over the system. One of them, amazingly enough brought me to where I am now. He had mentioned seeing nomads, actuall nomads in Alaska. "Alaska is closed down though, right mate?" I responded, trying to hide an almost unhealthy fascination. The man mearly smiled. I knew where I was pointed and left immeadiatly. Skipping around navy patrols I found myself in Alaska and again I'm not sure if the shock can be accuratly explained. I met another ship there, one I hadn't seen before. Nomad_killer was the simple disignation comming across my HUD, he asked my buisness and I was at a loss for words. I had found them, looking off in the distance I could see Anubis fighters patrolling around the eastern side of the sector, the order. "Respond, we have nomads comming in." I punched the reply tab on my comms, "The order, I've come with the attention to join the order sir." He sent me cordinates to get to a near jump hole when some kind of energy weapon slammed into the rear of my ship. The shields were gone, kicking on the cruise engines I headed for the hole. I seen them then, as I glanced over my shoulder, organic looking ships, the scourge of our homes, the nomads. I entered the gate.
It wasn't long before I was picked up by an order patrol and told to follow them to planet Toledo. I could not hide my excitement and burst over the comms, "Yes SIR!" The man simply called back, "Maitain radio silence untill arrival." The words seemed to temper my nervous for a moment. I landed and was escorted to a equilivant of a holding cell. I was allowed to send one message and so I did, to the order command, with my intentions. A week or more passed and I was gradually allowed alittle personal freedom, I could leave and land on Isis, the battleship in orbit overheard but I could not leave the system nor interfear in and operations with the order. I couldn't begin to tell you the area's that were off limit, to many to name. Finally, after times watching order ships engage the nomads out side of Isis a moment came. 3 Nomad gunboats and a number of escort craft were comming in and all available craft were needed. Alot of the order pilots were out on patrol and the Lt. in charge of me pointed me towards the docking platform, where a beatup Talon sat, it having lost its pilot only the day before. The man just nodded and I climed in and exited Isis.
I tried to form up with a nearby flight of Anubis fighters that were beginning to engage the escorts. It was insane blaster fire from the fighters made space a bright place. Nomads...thats all I could think. There tactics were to hard to calculate but withstanding their ships capiblities were something completly different. 2 Order fighters blew in a fountain of debris just to the left of me as I banked to avoid the shots raining in front of my view screen. Straightening the ship back out I was face to face with 3 nomad fighters flying a straight intercept course, I opened up with my cannons, dancing from side to side to avoid the oncomming fire from my oppunites. My computer chimed, shields gone. This is it, I thought, all that work to go out like this. A scream echoed out from behind me as a multitude of blaster fired errupted. 3 Nepthys fighters had been comming in for support and drove the targets to dive and bank away from their shots. I fell in behind one of the nomads and pulled the trigger. Nomads have no shields that I've seen but their hull is impressive to say the least. Finally after exhausting my energy reserves the target exploded in a array of light. My first kill. For what seemed like an enternity the battle raged. The Nepthys fighters and the Isis finally zeroing in on the gunboats the bring the things down.
Shaking at what had taken place I landed my craft on Isis. I expected to be greeted by a hail of applause and elation, expecailly since the other 2 Talon crafts, apperantly prized members of the battlegroup had docked in behind me. There was none. The men simply got out and walked over their craft checking for damages. One of them pulled down on their wing to check the structure. The bay was..cold. These men were fighting men, used to this, dedicated. I was amazed. I got out of my Talon and looked towards the chief, the man nodded, "You got the money to fix that up lad?" The question puzzled me, "Aye, I do." He nodded once again and went to ordering his small army of engineers to start looking over the ships. I walked back to my room slowly, trying to remember everything. I flung open my door and tears filled my eyes, wasn't sorrow, it was pride. Next to the bed stood the Lt. holding a black suit, an order suit. The man looked at me and said slowly, "Are you satisfied now Gilland?" I smiled weakly, "Thank you sir, thank you so much but no." The man cocked an eyebrow and I continued, "When I first came to Omicron Minor I sent off a application to command that, application was for acceptance to Black Squadron." The Lt. smiled, handed me my uniform and walked out.