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A Life of Many Flags | Biography and Journal of Kimberly Cross - Spectre - 07-05-2016
--{Accessing Port Ashur Medical Center Records}--
-{Retrieving Records for: [Kimberly Harlowe]}-
-Accessing-
{Files Retrieved}
{Displaying}
Port Ashur Medical and Trauma Center Record: CCZ-99i
Name: Kimberly Rose Harlowe
Gender: Female
Date-of-Birth: July 1st, 795 A.S.
Father: Frank Harlowe
Mother: Julianne Harlowe
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Black
-{Displaying Biographical Documentation Log}-
Childhood
Kimberly Rose Cross (Born Kimberly Rose Harlowe) is the only child of Frank and Julianne Harlowe, a couple who unfortunately decided to start their new lives on Planet Pittsburgh. Within the first few years of her life, Kimberly's father, Frank, had suffered a form of financial disaster, and resorted to dealing with this problem through alcohol. As prior experiences can attest, this was not the most sound solution, and soon enough, Kimberly's mother, Julianne, soon suffered the effects of his aggressive alcoholism.
It wasn't until Kimberly had graduated from High School and began taking piloting classes that the regular treatment from Frank began to weigh heavily on Julianne. On March 6th, 813 A.S., Julianne had pushed Frank a little too far, and was subsequently beaten to death by her enraged husband, who was too intoxicated to understand what he'd done. When Kimberly returned to her home, she noticed both her mother and father gone, her mother's blood stains still splattered across the kitchen, and her father's belongings gone. It was at this point that Kimberly decided to take her mind off of her past childhood, and focus instead on her future.
The Navy and the Core
After mourning the loss of her mother, she enlisted in the Liberty Navy, taking military pilot classes aboard West Point Academy. During her stay there, she made quick friends with her bunkmate, a Cambridge native named Alexander Kingston, who was in the same group as she was. They began to teach each other, eventually becoming very close. Kingston, however, respected her too much to go farther than that point, and they maintained their friendship until she graduated and was fully inducted into the Navy. She was provided with a BDR-804 "Guardian"-class fighter, which remains in her possession to this day, as well as a standard Navy fighter loadout that hasn't changed much since it's acquisition.
Not long after Kimberly joined the Navy proper, her fellow squadron-mates gave her the nickname 'Kally', as both a shortened form of her real name, and as a nod to the system she called home. Her house, a two bedroom apartment on Los Angeles, was rarely visited by her during her career in the Navy. She had preferred instead to live out of her Guardian fighter, going so far as to call the warbird 'Lianna', after the imaginary friend she had when she was growing up, her only reprieve from her alcoholic father.
Kally stayed in the Navy for about two and a half years, before a traumatizing patrol in Magellan caused her to lose her entire squadron, as well as some of the very friends she had made during her time in the Navy. It was here she decided to resign from the Navy, having only reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander when she sent the resignation forms. Her CO, however, had either not received her papers, or was just too stubborn to file them, and instead placed her as AWOL. Hearing this news, Kally had quickly decided to change her surname to 'Cross', so as to both stay inconspicuous, but to also rid her of the legacy of the murdering scum she called a 'father'.
Cross proceeded from Liberty off towards the Omicron systems, where she eventually met a representative of the Bounty Hunter's Guild Core, who offered her a job alongside a large amount of credits to sweeten the deal. Seeing no obvious problem with the deal, Cross accepted, and was soon integrated into the Core's fleet. Her ship, Lianna, was outfitted with more appropriate HN-C11 Edge World Engines, which glowed a distinct red as opposed to her old XV- series ones. She stayed in the employ of the BHG Core until their eventual transformation into 'The Core', staying on the sidelines while also maintaining a sense of moral security alongside her more careless fanatical compatriots.
However, this all changed in 823 A.S..
The Massacre
In the wake of several aggressive moves by the Core against the Zoners of Freeport 11, the Core had amassed a large fleet around the station, and were presumably preparing for a large incursion into Nomad space. The captain of one of these vessel had apparently not received one of their shipments, words were exchanged, and the eventual miscomm turned into a genocide, with the Core vessels directly assaulting the station. Cross, who was not on board at the time, returned to the station, it being a wreck of it's former self. After hearing about the attack through several contacts aboard the station, Cross paid for modifications to her ship's IFF and ID transponders, effectively leaving the Core.
For a time, Kally remained independent, flying odd jobs for either the Order or the Zoners. She tried what she could to distance herself from the Core, seeing the leadership as 'pro-Core/anti-Everything Else', and seeing the pilots and captains as selfish murderers with no regard for human life. It wasn't long, however, before she figured she was fighting for the wrong side, and began to chat up pilots from the Order who set up on Freeport 11 to both do their patrols, and to help with hte relief effort. In time, she applied for the Order's primary fleet, figuring they had to be better than the Core in any regard.
Roarke
It wasn't long before she was accepted, and inducted into training at Giza Military Base on Akabat, albeit with a bit of a leash due to her previous experience in the Core. Not long after her crash course at Giza, Kally met a fellow newbie Order pilot by the name of Alistair Roarke, a former mercenary turned Order operative. The two became fast friends, both understanding the other well, and staying by the others side. In the days that follow, Roarke began to make more friendly moves, such as co-rent for an apartment on Akabat, where the two lived for a few weeks.
It wasn't long before the two eventually began to go out. Dinner at a local steakhouse, extended patrols, anything they could get away with to be together. The two continuously spent more and more time together, until an incident in the Omicron Major system began to dig into Roarke seeds of discontent with a friend of Kally's who had been requesting her help ever since the Freeport Massacre. This friend, Colonel Maria Cortez of the Maltese 72nd Fleet, asked on several occasions for Cross' help, to which Cross accepted. These acts, however, worried Roarke, as he saw them as taking advantage of her, and thus thought that her involvement would spell her demise.
After a tragic incident involving a Nomad jump gate in Omicron Major, Roarke was grievously injured, and returned to Taba Starbase in Omicron Mu, where he was admitted soon after arrival. Feeling the guilt, Kally took steps to help keep him occupied on something other than the pain and the incident. Her original plan being to comfort him as a friend, Roarke took it a step further, and initiated the spark in their relationship. Soon after, they began to show their affection more prominently, although always behind closed doors.
Disappearance
Their affection eventually grew to the point where Roarke didn't want Kally to needlessly risk her life, which more often than not involved her friend in the 72nd to call upon her for aid. After giving him a vow to not risk her life for the fleet, which to her meant going on deep excursions into Nomad space, Roarke was mildly at peace. The Fleet did continue to inquire to Cross for assistance, but in keeping with her promise to Alistair, she kept it limited to meetings and simple grab-n-go missions.
One day, however, one of these meetings turned out chaotically. What was supposed to be a quiet meeting on the Niigata Star City in Sigma-59 turned out to be a ruse, and Kally, without any knowledge of how or why she was there, awoke in an asteroid field in the Burgundy system, in Gallia. Scared and unknowing of her surrounding, she was soon contacted by an agent of the Order called 'Vizier-One'. This individual, to which she still doesn't know the identity, was working alongside Roarke and had requested her to return to the Atum in Inverness. Using several logs of info from several Council patrols, Kally made her way back to the Atum, landing aboard and reuniting with Alistair.
Biologically Induced Coma
Vizier-One locked her out of her fighter, leaving her aboard the Atum until she was better, as she hadn't been eating or drinking much and had focused too hard on others. Her and Alistair spent the night together aboard the Atum, talking, comforting, as well as other things that can be implied to have happened. The two had continued with their normal duties, Kally having reaccustomed herself to the normal intake of food and water, and she began with her patrols of the New York system. On her second patrol after landing aboard the Atum, something unusual occurred.
Roarke and Vizier-One had established contact with her as she was near Rochester north of Manhattan. Kally had informed Roarke of the news that she was pregnant. This caught him somewhat off guard, and as he continued to converse with her about it, she unknowingly passed into unconsciousness. Her ship's computer transported her to a medical facility on Denver, where she was diagnosed with a condition known as 'Koleg's Syndrome', an incredibly rare genetic abnormality that affects the female anatomy in a way that basically kicks pregnancy into overdrive. She was investigated, checked out, and transported to her Aunt and Uncle's house on Houston, a small microchip on her uniform developed by the 72nd being her only form of communication with her lover and all else.
It took two weeks for the effects of the coma to begin to wear off, first starting with her head, then her appendages, and finally with her legs. The day her legs came back was also the day that she was to give birth to her children, detected to be carrying twins by her friend Maria. They returned to Denver, and not long after she was admitted, she went into labor. It wasn't long before she was shifted into motherhood, giving birth to two children, a son named Nathan, and a daughter named Elizabeth.
Post-Motherhood
Alistair and Kally, having been declared wed shortly before she went into labor, returned to Houston, where they thought out their plans for the near future. Since Akabat was far off, and not exactly as homely as the two preferred, they were looking for a steading nearby, either within or around Liberty. The two eventually found a home alongside another couple on Planet Denver, Liberty Navy pilot Alexander Kingston, and his girlfriend, LSF Captain Alissa Murray, who had a large area of privately owned land on the southern continent. While it was secluded, that fact also bumped as an advantage, the location being tranquil and serene, and a perfect place to raise a family in Kally's eyes.
-{Biographical Documentation Log Ends}-
[Log for Kally: July 5th, 823 A.S.]-[Audio Enabled]
"Well, that should be the gist of it.. My entire life's story, all in a single log. Hard to believe all that fits on one little drive.."
*Metal Clangs. Soft, but audible.*
"You served me well, ol' girl.. I know it's tough.."
*Groaning Metal. Again, soft but audible.*
"I'll be back someday.. just.. not today.."
*Male Voice. Shouting, but from a distance.*
"Yeah, babe! I'll be out in a sec', alright? *pause* You stay ready, Lia.. whenever I need 'ya, you be ready.."
*Footsteps, and a loud clank.*
[Log Ends]