01-21-2010, 11:37 PM
//first draft/first attempt ever at a RP bio/story. Be gentle if I got something really wrong. Cheers OzoneRanger.
Eire, Pennsylvania System.
It had been three weeks and his wrist and ankles still had a rash, a small left over from his encounter with an Outcast ship hold. As he rubbed some Skinsynth on, his thoughts drifted... "in the end it could have been worse. After all I am still alive". "Alive" he though.."what a joke".
As he countinued to shave he had a good long time to stare at himself in the mirror. His eyes were still abit blood shot from the foul, stinging green mist that enveloped that Cardisniffers cargo hold. He had taken at least 16 showers and still he smelled putrid. So much so that the rest of his fighter wing had threatened to change his call sign to "Stinky".
His brother poked his head in to the Bathroom...."CafeDrink?", thrusting out a large hard worked hand he offered his brother a cup. He could see his brother still wasnt right. His gaze was lost. He was still deep in himself somewhere. But who could blame him.
"Thanks" said Dan, took the warm cup of liquid.
"You wanna come out.... work some today?" grunted Bob in his coarse aged voice, "get your mind off things?" Dan and Bob had inherited the family business when their father died some many years ago. The Matlock patriarch had arrived like many others Zoners on Eire. He had just enough credits to get there and not enough to go anywhere else. So he bought himself the cheapest ship he could find on credit, and went to mine Helium out in the Ralston ice field, in the Hallman nebula. It was a small mom&pop mining&shipping operation, but they made do. They had hardly been out of the Pennsylvania system, that was until the war with the Rhienland.
"...Damn war" Bob thought to himself as he looked at his brother. Dan was still staring at himself, cup in hand, lost fighting his deamons deep somewhere in his mind.."if it had not been for the war, things would still be good" Bob mused to himself and raised his hand and gave his brother a smack on the back of the neck. "HEY...you coming to work some today or what".
"No" said a startled Dan as he started to put his toiletries back in his kit."I got called back to service. I catch a transport to Manhattan in an hour". Dan knew full well his brother would know he was lying.
Bob looked over his shoulder at him as he walked back to the kitchen "dont piss on my leg and tell me its raining Bro, you know that **** dont fly with me.". Dan had three more weeks of medical leave, but was sure he could get cleared to get back in the cockpit. With the war on, there was a need for as many fighter pilots as posible. Bob could hear his brother packing his things up. He started to bag up the lunch he had already gotten together for his brothers trip to the capital. "When is it gona be enough Dan?"
Dan, was aware of where his brother was coming from. Two hands were not enough to count the times he had been shot down since he joined up. And how he had escaped death by sheer chance or coincidence.
"I mean....after this last stunt" said Bob "..I dont think you got to many lives left buddy...".
Bob still considered this last rescue of his brother a miracle. Dan had been on patrol in Texas that day, and suffered a computer core failure. No power, no comm, no nothing. Dead in the water. He was easy prey. Along came an Outcast that shot him up with no mercy and tractored in his pod. He took him to Beaumont base and tried to trade him for some Cardime. The Junkers there wanted no part of the deal. It was then that he was shackeled inside the hold of that foul Cardisniffer ship.
The Outcast in question was then in the middle of taking Dan to Cape Wrath base. When he passed through Pennsylvania, things got even wierder. Bob was Mining in the Nebula behind Eire like every other day. Out of knowhere he has this strange sensation...like a voice
"**steelskin...Brother...fear...**, ....**steelskin ...Brother.... find**" at first he thinks that maybe he should lay off the SynthWeed. But he is then overcome with a strange clarity and finds himself dumping everything in his hold and flying off at full cruise. Bob had no idea what he was doing, he was just flying fast to nowhere, or so he thought. It was as if he was not the one thinking for himself, and at the same time he was cool with it. Then a contact shows up on the scanner screen. To Bob it feels like a dream. He powers up his guns and quickly takes out the unsuspecting Outcast shields from behind. Powers off all guns but one turret, flys by, kills the engine, throws the Dromedary turned fighter into a 180 change in course and blows a whole the sized of a fist through the front cockpit porthole, shuting down the ship, Killing the Outcast, but leaving the hold intact. All that time shooting rocks and flying around asteroids had paid off. Bob then tractored the ship back to Eire and got Dan out of the Hold before his air ran out.
"No Dude" Bob raising his voice, walking over and putting his index fin ager in the center of Dan's chest.
"Now I know you lost alot losing Genna, Billy and Kate.......but you have already paid the Rhienlanders back 10 fold for what they did to them."."So ...when is enough enough brother?"
It was supposed to have been a fun trip. A first off-world experience for little Billy. They were all supposed to go to Freeport 2 in Bering to celebrate his 4th birthday. It sounds like a rough place to take a kid to eat cake, but its where his wife had been born, and she knew her way around the station. Dan stayed behind to fix the cooling filters on the forward guns of the Dromedary. Cant mine what you cant hit, at the time it seemed like the best thing to do. Take care of his family by making sure the ships were up to the task. His brother could fly out into the nebula and back again all he wanted. Things always required maintanence and that was his thing. At the time, he did all he could to avoid space travel. Opting to stay on the ground as much as possible and let his brother do the flying. That suited Bob as well.
The day everything changed, was the first day of the war. Dans family was on an old Mastadon Libertonian Transport that did the run between Freeport 2 and Eire. They were returning to Eire and had just left the station. They were flying a Liberty built ship and it became fair game in war that had just erupted. The Rhienland fighters made quick work of the Mastadon. But the worst of it was that the flight transmisions itercepted by a number of other vessels indicated that the escape pods had ejected and that the Rheinlanders showed no mercy and shot the escape pods down as well.
Dan joined the Navy the very next day. It had not been that long ago, and at the same time it was so distant in his mind.
"Enough is when I say its enough" answered back Dan. There was a moment of tension and the two brothers looked at each other with a hard clean stare.
Bob smiled and passed him the sack lunch he had prepared. "Alright man...relax...but when I start hearing things in my head and I aint been smoking Synthweed then somethings really out of this world, you know what Im saying?"
Dan smiled at his brother. "Come on, give me a ride to the space port."
He did know. He had opted not to tell or report his encounters with the Nomads, and the voices he had heard while patroling New York a few months back. He feared that they might ground him for Psych reasons. And if he could not fly, he could not exact justice for his dead family and liberate himself of his curse.
Eire, Pennsylvania System.
It had been three weeks and his wrist and ankles still had a rash, a small left over from his encounter with an Outcast ship hold. As he rubbed some Skinsynth on, his thoughts drifted... "in the end it could have been worse. After all I am still alive". "Alive" he though.."what a joke".
As he countinued to shave he had a good long time to stare at himself in the mirror. His eyes were still abit blood shot from the foul, stinging green mist that enveloped that Cardisniffers cargo hold. He had taken at least 16 showers and still he smelled putrid. So much so that the rest of his fighter wing had threatened to change his call sign to "Stinky".
His brother poked his head in to the Bathroom...."CafeDrink?", thrusting out a large hard worked hand he offered his brother a cup. He could see his brother still wasnt right. His gaze was lost. He was still deep in himself somewhere. But who could blame him.
"Thanks" said Dan, took the warm cup of liquid.
"You wanna come out.... work some today?" grunted Bob in his coarse aged voice, "get your mind off things?" Dan and Bob had inherited the family business when their father died some many years ago. The Matlock patriarch had arrived like many others Zoners on Eire. He had just enough credits to get there and not enough to go anywhere else. So he bought himself the cheapest ship he could find on credit, and went to mine Helium out in the Ralston ice field, in the Hallman nebula. It was a small mom&pop mining&shipping operation, but they made do. They had hardly been out of the Pennsylvania system, that was until the war with the Rhienland.
"...Damn war" Bob thought to himself as he looked at his brother. Dan was still staring at himself, cup in hand, lost fighting his deamons deep somewhere in his mind.."if it had not been for the war, things would still be good" Bob mused to himself and raised his hand and gave his brother a smack on the back of the neck. "HEY...you coming to work some today or what".
"No" said a startled Dan as he started to put his toiletries back in his kit."I got called back to service. I catch a transport to Manhattan in an hour". Dan knew full well his brother would know he was lying.
Bob looked over his shoulder at him as he walked back to the kitchen "dont piss on my leg and tell me its raining Bro, you know that **** dont fly with me.". Dan had three more weeks of medical leave, but was sure he could get cleared to get back in the cockpit. With the war on, there was a need for as many fighter pilots as posible. Bob could hear his brother packing his things up. He started to bag up the lunch he had already gotten together for his brothers trip to the capital. "When is it gona be enough Dan?"
Dan, was aware of where his brother was coming from. Two hands were not enough to count the times he had been shot down since he joined up. And how he had escaped death by sheer chance or coincidence.
"I mean....after this last stunt" said Bob "..I dont think you got to many lives left buddy...".
Bob still considered this last rescue of his brother a miracle. Dan had been on patrol in Texas that day, and suffered a computer core failure. No power, no comm, no nothing. Dead in the water. He was easy prey. Along came an Outcast that shot him up with no mercy and tractored in his pod. He took him to Beaumont base and tried to trade him for some Cardime. The Junkers there wanted no part of the deal. It was then that he was shackeled inside the hold of that foul Cardisniffer ship.
The Outcast in question was then in the middle of taking Dan to Cape Wrath base. When he passed through Pennsylvania, things got even wierder. Bob was Mining in the Nebula behind Eire like every other day. Out of knowhere he has this strange sensation...like a voice
"**steelskin...Brother...fear...**, ....**steelskin ...Brother.... find**" at first he thinks that maybe he should lay off the SynthWeed. But he is then overcome with a strange clarity and finds himself dumping everything in his hold and flying off at full cruise. Bob had no idea what he was doing, he was just flying fast to nowhere, or so he thought. It was as if he was not the one thinking for himself, and at the same time he was cool with it. Then a contact shows up on the scanner screen. To Bob it feels like a dream. He powers up his guns and quickly takes out the unsuspecting Outcast shields from behind. Powers off all guns but one turret, flys by, kills the engine, throws the Dromedary turned fighter into a 180 change in course and blows a whole the sized of a fist through the front cockpit porthole, shuting down the ship, Killing the Outcast, but leaving the hold intact. All that time shooting rocks and flying around asteroids had paid off. Bob then tractored the ship back to Eire and got Dan out of the Hold before his air ran out.
"No Dude" Bob raising his voice, walking over and putting his index fin ager in the center of Dan's chest.
"Now I know you lost alot losing Genna, Billy and Kate.......but you have already paid the Rhienlanders back 10 fold for what they did to them."."So ...when is enough enough brother?"
It was supposed to have been a fun trip. A first off-world experience for little Billy. They were all supposed to go to Freeport 2 in Bering to celebrate his 4th birthday. It sounds like a rough place to take a kid to eat cake, but its where his wife had been born, and she knew her way around the station. Dan stayed behind to fix the cooling filters on the forward guns of the Dromedary. Cant mine what you cant hit, at the time it seemed like the best thing to do. Take care of his family by making sure the ships were up to the task. His brother could fly out into the nebula and back again all he wanted. Things always required maintanence and that was his thing. At the time, he did all he could to avoid space travel. Opting to stay on the ground as much as possible and let his brother do the flying. That suited Bob as well.
The day everything changed, was the first day of the war. Dans family was on an old Mastadon Libertonian Transport that did the run between Freeport 2 and Eire. They were returning to Eire and had just left the station. They were flying a Liberty built ship and it became fair game in war that had just erupted. The Rhienland fighters made quick work of the Mastadon. But the worst of it was that the flight transmisions itercepted by a number of other vessels indicated that the escape pods had ejected and that the Rheinlanders showed no mercy and shot the escape pods down as well.
Dan joined the Navy the very next day. It had not been that long ago, and at the same time it was so distant in his mind.
"Enough is when I say its enough" answered back Dan. There was a moment of tension and the two brothers looked at each other with a hard clean stare.
Bob smiled and passed him the sack lunch he had prepared. "Alright man...relax...but when I start hearing things in my head and I aint been smoking Synthweed then somethings really out of this world, you know what Im saying?"
Dan smiled at his brother. "Come on, give me a ride to the space port."
He did know. He had opted not to tell or report his encounters with the Nomads, and the voices he had heard while patroling New York a few months back. He feared that they might ground him for Psych reasons. And if he could not fly, he could not exact justice for his dead family and liberate himself of his curse.
![[Image: Johnny_Depp_6.jpg]](http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p272/Sedrander/Johnny_Depp_6.jpg)
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