"I love you son." Desmond's Father said right before he pushes Desmond into the escape pod and closes the door. Desmond's fear and pain in his eyes could only be felt, not observed.
"NOO!" He yells out as he watches Freeport 7 explode into a fireball...
Desmond awakens in his bed, sweaty, shaken, and clearly hyperventilating. He gets up slowly and walks to the sink in the kitchen of his small Akabat apartment.
Grabbing a glass out of the cabinet above the sink, he fills it up with water and starts to drink. "It's been years and I'm still having nightmares... Is sleep too much to ask for?" he questions silently to himself. As he finishes the glass of water he walks over to his window and looks out over the city he came to know in his time as an Order Agent. Looking over the city he wonders if or when it will all end. The nightmares, the grieving, the wars... his life. He knows any day could be his last due to the constant fighting he endures every day.
He sets his glass on a table beside the window then heads to his room to suit up for flight. As he suits up he can't help but to think about his father, would he be proud of what he's become? If only he could ask him.
As he walks out the door and locks it behind him he has an odd feeling come over him. A feeling that he just wants to call it quits with The Order and start over. Start new. "Should I?" He thinks to himself, "After all The Order isn't doing much good for me like I thought it would."
He walks down the hall towards an elevator that leads to the hanger. He steps in along with a couple others, "Hangar or engineering?" a man says to Desmond, but he doesn't reply. He's lost in deeper in thought than what he was close to 20 years ago... "Hey buddy, you alright?" the man says as he puts a hand on Desmond's shoulder. Desmond jumps back into reality at his touch and looks at him with a squint, "Yeah I'm fine... Hangar please." The man looks at him oddly like he's never seen a human before and presses the hangar button. Within about 10 seconds the door opens and Desmond steps out with a couple others. He walks towards his ship and hops in at the same time he flips John on, his built in ship AI he made himself.
"Good morning sir, I hope you slept well." John says over the comm. "All scans are already complete, just waiting on you to give the word for take off." Desmond remains quiet as he puts his oxygen mask on. He does his final check of the ship and closes the cockpit. As he engages the engines he says to John, "I'm flying today John, I need to relax and keep my mind off some things."
"Are you ok sir?" John says in his monotone voice.
"I'm fine, just got a lot on my mind."
"If you say so sir. Just let me know if you need anything."
As he leaves Akabat's atmosphere he pulls up his patrol path file. He scans over it noticing that today they're sending him to patrol Sigma-13. "That's odd." Desmond says quietly, "They've never sent me to patrol there... thought they had special people for that system." John then chimes in, "Sir, they died last night there while you were asleep and nobody knows how or why. They want you to check it out."
"How do you know this John?" Desmond questions intently, "They should have had somebody come with me."
"I keep track of that stuff, it's in the files. Not only that but it's in your patrol file as well..."
Desmond looks over the file again and notices it does in fact say that, "So it seems. Sorry for being so jumpy lately, I havent slept well." Desmond punches in the coordinates to Sigma-13 and engages his cruise engines. John remains silent as he scans the surrounding area. Desmond on the other hand is silent but his mind is racing. "Today could be the day." he whispers to himself. "What was that sir?" Desmond looks down at the speaker John speaks out of as if looking at an actual person, "What was what?"
"You said something."
"Did I?" Desmond says hesitantly. John speaks a few seconds after, "Are you ok sir? You don't seem like yourself." Desmond knew he wasn't alright but he didn't want John to know that. "Yes I'm fine John... Let me take a nap while you fly us to Sigma-13." Desmond lets go of the joystick as John takes over, "Of course sir. Will wake you when we get there."
Desmond slowly drifts away in his sleep hoping to not wake up.
"Sir, wake up." John says. He waits for Desmond to respond. Nothing. "Sir! Wake up!" Desmond jumps awake, "What!? Are we being shot?!"
"No sir, we're here."
"Oh... Good. Take autopilot off and start scanning the system for our men."
"Roger that sir."
Desmond takes control of the ship and heads towards the Frankfurt jumphole, taking the same path as the patrols did. "Still nothing John?" Desmond says while keeping a close eye of his surroundings. "Still nothing sir." Desmond opens his mouth to say something but John interrupts him, "Sir, I've got something. Looks like a Unioner reading." Desmond didn't think Unioners were out that far but maybe he knew something about what was going on... "Let's intercept. He might know something. He might not. Worth a shot."
"He's about 7.5k away. Homing - " John was interrupted.
"Guten tag!" The Unioner says over his small screen. "What brings an Order way out here?" Desmond is hesitant on telling him exactly why so instead he says, "Just a patrol."
"A patrol huh? Out here? The last Order we saw out here became space dust for questioning us too much." The Unioner says calmly.
Desmond is shocked by what he just said. "Repeat that? You said you killed them?" The Unioner hesitates, "Yes. Yes I did. Me and a few men of mine."
Desmond just stares at the man over his screen. How could a few pirates take down 4 Order Pilots, skilled ones at that? Part of him wanted to figure it out.
"How did you do that? They were good pilots. Never met them before but I heard they were the best there was."
The Unioner laughs as he says, "Best?! I've had harder fights than those 4. They couldn't even get through my shields!" Desmond sits and processes what he just heard.
"Well I'm going to have to kill you now it seems..."
The Unioner stares Desmond down through the screen as if looking right through his soul. He opens his mouth but rethinks what he was about to say.
John out of nowhere says, "Sir, I don't think that's a good idea... If what he said is true about our weapons not even scratching his shield then we're toast." Desmond knew he was right... He didn't want to die here. Much less, die at all. He had one of two choices...
"How about this Unioner... I'll join you in exchange for info about the Omicrons. If you win in a fair duel. If I win though... Well you'll be working for me." Desmond says firmly.
"Sir what do you think you're doing!?" John says right before Desmond shuts him off.
The Unioner thinks for a moment.... "I accept your deal... You could be useful to us after I beat you."
"Don't count on it." Desmond activates his weapons with a switch and starts to barrel down on the Unioner while dodging the Unioner's guns as well. The Unioner only hit him 3 times and Desmond's shields were already below 5%. He knew now that this was a bad idea... They both quickly turn their ships around and start to head at each other head on while both laying into each other. Desmond noticed that his guns didn't do much damage to the Unioner's shield, if any at all. "I'm going to die out here." Desmond said to himself. He tries his best to get behind the Unioner but his attempt failed. Instead the Unioner pulled a maneuver and got behind Desmond. Within quick shots Desmond's ship was disabled... His wing was gone along with his thruster.
"Alright, alright! Hold your fire!" Desmond says frantically. "You win."
The Unioner comes back on the comm, "So... Join us? Or die?"
Desmond knew he made a mistake but he didn't want to die... "How could I be so stupid?" he thought to himself.
"I'll join you... You won fair in square..."
The Unioner chuckles, "Gut! Now follow me before I change my mind... We'll get you set up..."
They fly through a few systems before arriving at a mining station in Hamburg. "Dock here and I'll meet you aboard."
Desmond didn't like this at all... He knew that pirates couldn't be trusted. Hell, he didn't even know the guy's name! Desmond gets back on the comm, "Hey! Unioner... What's your name?"
The Unioner says apologetically, "Oh I'm sorry where are my manners? My name is Herman Lochner. Und yours?"
"Desmond... Desmond Gray."
"Well nice to meet you Desmond. Now that you know me... Dock. Before I tell this station to open fire on you. Or better yet, I'll do it myself."
Desmond sends the docking codes to the station and lands the ship. As he opens his cockpit he wonders what mess he got himself into... If anybody in the order figured out he was now with the Unioners they wouldn't hesitate to come looking for him for execution. Knowing he'd get a new ship he takes John out of his ship and holds the box that makes up John as he waits for Herman to dock as well.
"This will not end for the better..." Desmond mumbles to himself.
