THe door opens to reveal a 19 year old kid in the uniform of a Navy Bomber pilot. Lts. Bars are on his collar. On his chest was the the insignia of Task Force Iota, a newly made Navy Force that handled domestic threats to Liberty. The sits down at the abr and orders a glass of some soft drink. He looks over, searching until he sees a Navy person. He walks over.
Hey. YOu know about the crazy Order pilot who's been drifting around New York?
The kid sits down at a nearby table and waits for an answer
The grizzeled looking commander slowly turns around to see who spoke,the soft metallic clink of the cybernetic arm releasing the whiskey glass onto the bar.He looks the young Lt over quickly,first with the steely-eyed normal eye,then with the cybernetic left eye."Hmph...standard issue side-arm.He's young,maybe he'll learn fast and not wind up another statistic." the commander thinks to himself.
Yes,I've seen many such young pilots,all trying to make a name for them selves.Few rarely make it.
He motions to the bartender,whispers something to him,picks up his drink and proceeds to the Lt's table.
The waitress approaches the table just as the commander gets there.She sets a soda and a glass of whiskey on the table as the commander flipps a 100 credit chip onto her tray" keep the rest darlin ". He then pulls up a chair and says to the new LT "So,hows the new task force comming along? Here,let me buy you another round."
The young LT notices the shoulder patch on the commanders jacket.I takes him a moment to understand the symbols on it.Then it hits him.Z21 Defence Force,Guardian of Liberty.
The Lt remembers hearing stories about them,the rumors of huge battles against the Order invasions,and the Nomads........Nomads..he shudders at the thought.
Zack thinks to himself. Why did I have to pick the guy who easily could put his Upholder into the scrapheap And Nomads! Man...I have enough to deal with... He turns. "Hi. Lt. Archer. Or Zack. Iota you mean? Its fine. Kaz is fine-tuning the works...Oh, here he is.
Kazinsal Goldsmith walks in, surveys the room, and spotts Zack. He makes his way over to him, sits down, and says a few sentences before leaving to converse with the others in the bar.
Zack. Iota is up. I need a second-in-command. And since you where the one who was there at the beginning. Kaz slids a small matchbox to Zack, who opens it to see a Commanders bars. Zack stutters and barely can get the words out.
Sir, Im not worthy. Im a lowly Lietanant. Why me?" Kaz smiles. "YOu have potential. Some see it. Oh, and I have my new gunboat. the Langley. He grinns. "Try and get better at dogfighting kid. You will need it.
Kaz gets up and moves away. Zack is frozen with disbeleif. He just is silent. He finally finds his voice.
I am so going to be a screwup...this is crazy... Zack sighs and downs his soda. The waitress brings him another. Suddenly, his communicator chirps. He answers it.
"Bloody Hell...Yeah, Yeah...Same Place, Sam Time...Tell Gwyn i say Hi, ok? Yeah...just go you crazy fool." Zack puts the comm away and looks at the commander.
I have to go. Thanks for talking to me. Zack downs his drink, gets up, and leaves. Seconds later the sounds off his Upholder lifting off are heard, then they slowly fade. The commander scratches his head and ponders the strange behavior, and the sudden promotion by Kazinsal Goldsmith. He shakes his head and continues to drink
*the bar doors opened slowly un asumeingly as a second black and gold trimed uniform clad officer steped in,he carried a captians insignia and a SF patch of the venerable first special Operations Detachment the famous oak leaves and dagger he also had a command patch of a naval warship CB-19 fort LouisbourgCO" was on it*thwe bar kinda was in suspended animationfor a second as insted of a full dress uniform he had a light vest on under his jacket grey fatiges and a non standard "mk24" needle pistol that fired 6.8 diameter Iridum core "spikelike" projectiles his command was seen looming in a high "parking orbit" of the base on a landing decent the massive newly reclassed one of a kind Forrtress-class assault his responsabilty his ship ,his"good old girl"
he sat own and looked around spotting gen kaitlyn he ignored her afraid mostly because he dident want to bring back painful haunts of there breakup" gimme a wisky and all of you stop stareing at me like im a godamned mass killer i dont bash your branches so why bash mine" he sipped his drink and looked to alina the 6.6 foot tall 220 pound fully chissled jimmy patterson spoke" commander morrison,nice seeing you back in uniformhe nodded to isabelle as she loked tro him and mouthed 'ma'am" his eyes showed respect allmost like he was saluteing "good to see you again ,isa" he said and he gulped
Isabelle looked back at Jimmy, her cyan eyes somewhat confused, just for a moment.
"Hi, Jimmy. It's been... a long while. How are you?" she asked, her voice controlled, but not quite as artificially polite. It was merely her normal voice that somehow fewer and fewer people heard of these days, one that only the intimate circle of people in her life heard because she felt safe enough in their presence.
They too, weren't many.
* the fortress creeping closer ar suprisingly 160m/s was in her final stage flight path at about25,000 feet flarelets of her retros fired in an allmost music-like way but very few could see them from her current alitude she would normally come in faster but airspace was ...crowded it wasent every day people saw a 3/4 kilometer long ship make a planetary landing so naturally. jim smiled and sipped his wisky" yes it has isa how have you been i had thought well i thought you had retired or worse" his eyes met hers as if saying ive missed you but it was noticable only to her"what have you been up to?" he asked nervously waiting yet hideing it for her response it was only a few short months ago that they had been engaged and both agreed because of work to "break it off" the fort at this point was a growing presense over the base at a mere 15,000 feet now her retros visable if you looked hard enough,her shuttles allready ferrying crew off and on for rotations,supplys as well
Lieutenant Kentaurus Toliman unbuttoned the top collar button on his flight suit as he approached the doors of the Bar & Grill. He had heard good stories about this place from his fellow pilots and had was looking forward to sitting down and unwinding after a long day of patrols. As he grabbed the door handle, he sighed to relieve some stress he had accumulated over the past hours. As the door swung outward, a cool breeze from inside rushed out. The smell of steak, grilled onions, and other delicious fragrances wafted out of the establishment. Inside the room was dimly lit, yet inviting, as if offering one to relax and forget about things for a while.
All along the left wall were pictures and snapshots of parties and frequent patrons. Also included in the mix were shots of ships on their maiden voyage and spectacular shots of combat and peace time formations. On the right wall, past the bar, hung the portraits of fallen or missing pilots. Each person smiling brightly. Underneath each picture was a small plaque with their name, years in service, and how they died or went missing.
Toliman walked over to one of the portraits.
Ensign Henry Archer
Liberty Navy - 10 Months
Missing In Action - Routine patrol mission
Archer had been Toliman's wing-man during flight training. While during on of their training missions, they received a distress signal from an area near Zone-21. Holding out for reinforcements, Archer's Guardian was hit by an enemy missile, disabling his engines. Later, his fighter was found drifting near the mine field, the escape pod launched, however there was no sign of it.
"Sad when young pilots die, eh?" said the bartender.
Still looking at the portrait, Toliman responded absentmindely, "Yeah."
"Well, they gave their lives so that others may live. Can't let them die in vain can we?"
Toliman smiled, "Too true."
"That's the spirit Lieutenant. So then, what will it be?"
"Hrm... What's today's special?"
The Massive fortress Class battlecruiser passed overhead if you looked you could see her various ordanvce her Drop pods for her orbitial marines her Retros various high Velocity Launch Tubes that could jetason anything from a fighter to the ships one of 3 Reactors and inside her assault shuttle hangers ,men were offloading supplys and loading for a two week liberty.
"may the gods have mercy on those that have fallen"*he said starting a toast upon the mentioning of the fallen comrades as he sipped his wisky and the Fort passed by landing about a half mile away on the Base's Large airstrip,she was still very much visable as her massive quad landing struts deployed and her ion drive exaust vents closed and shut down,bursts of retros fire and gas relife from her airtight vents spurting from her acesses as her external hatches opened,she was at this point allmost fully powered down her red glowing sensors stil lactivly scanning they allways were total resupply and rotations under "peacetime conditions" would take a day and a half if all her shuttles pulled normal shifts but if needed she wcould cut that in half by flying doubles he smiled "shes a beauty isint she,CB-19B fort Louisbourg,Fortress Class Command Cruiser a mobile base unto herself if needbe and one of a kind"
Isabelle shrugged slightly
"I can't speak of it. Not here." she said simply, looking at the sky.
"I see the Fortress is still under your command... how does the girl fares these days?"
jim slid closer to her and motioned the barkeep to get her a glass ofher favorite as if saying "i miss you" before he spoke "well,lets see had a through and through from a light morter,supernova cannon round through the star at midships lost 25 good soldiers that day shes been gutted and refit with new computers,gutted again and fitted with stealth tech akin to the citadelle even a prototype cammoflage system,recently declasified,weve mostly been running drills for an operation and systems tests the cammos coolwe can pick any pattern or solid color when we touch down to hide the old girl or change in transit in about a minute and a half the ships AI has seemed to adopt a mateblack Crimson tiger stripe pattern ive declared it our "battledress" looks preety sleek on the old girl." he inched closer and whispered only him and her could hear" they even fitted us with a cloak and an antimatter anailation jumpcore" anyway isa,hows things with you,an hows the citadelle" jim finisned meeting eye contact with her if only breifly before he took another hit from his wisky