Evangeline Anastasia McDowell

[Bazza]

Entry#: 069
Date: 12 - 02 - 818 AS @ 15:44 SUT
Title: One helluva week.

So there I was back at what has been my home for the last couple weeks, Vieques Shipyards. I had just finished delivering a shipload of recycled steel plating to the Rogues at Buffalo Base when I received word from the boys at the docks that they had completed outfitting my destroyer with the guns I had procured from Bretonia.

Standing beside the Maelstrom that day left me awestruck. This ship was a ghost when I first found it and looking at her now filled me with the greatest sense of pride I've ever felt. This old wreck - a zombie brought back from the dead, a Frankenstein's Monster of parts and panels - was now complete and ready to make herself known as the very pointy end of the McDowell Company Fleet.

I parked my as yet unnamed Salvager alongside the Alsatia and threw everyone into the Maelstrom along side some of the lads who worked on her.

We fired up the engines, gave everything a final once-over and departed the Vieques dry-dock. I was quite pleased with the way Maelstrom moves, in fact, quite capable of keeping up with the Alsatia - a ship half her size.

I was nonchalantly puttering around the northern scrap fields of Texas when I received a rather intriguing transmission over the radio - an unencrypted message broadcast from the civilian communications array in orbit over Planet Houston.

The message stated that Rheinland had launched an attack on New York. It went so far as to describe the location of the incident and warned all civilians to stay away. A Rheinland battleship had breached the outer patrols, sneakily wedged itself into the heart of Liberty and was now tearing things apart near Norfolk Shipyard.

Using the benefit of hindsight someone must have been looking out for me. I had a cruiser, I had guns, I had the people and the personal immortality that accompanies teenagers, but what I didn't have was the skills or knowledge required of the commander of a capital ship.

With mixed responses ranging from "this is a bad idea", to "this is a terrible idea", I hit the cruise engines and made my way to New York. The flight only took approximately a half hour thanks to the convenience of the Houston to New York Gate tradelane.

Now, I'm not previewed to Navy operations but when I received that warning, I was expecting the place to be swarming with Liberty's finest heavy hitters, hopefully making a barbecue out of the Rheinlanders.

The place was swarming alright, but with navy fighters and even some damn police Patriots. Not the most appropriate set of pieces for a chess game with the opposing King three kilometres long.

They were keeping the battleship busy, taking little nibbles of the shielding and running outside the ship's firing arc as soon as they got its attention. I sat there for a moment and watched in amusement. Let it never be said Liberty flyboys are not dangerously stubborn when it comes to defending their homeland. A single shot from any of the guns on that flying brick would knock 'em off.

And that was exactly what was happening. Every lucky shot the gunner of the battleship got put an end to one of the swarm.

I counted a good forty ships on the Liberty side, and only one remaining on the Rheinland side, the comms chatter I picked up referring to it as the "Tirpitz".

I decided enough was enough; that I would be putting an end to this mess. I ordered Misaka, ad-hoc gunnery control officer, to train the targeting system on the battleship and start offloading the EMP pulse cannons.

The fighter swarm I flew into quickly became aware of my actions and begun working with me, despite not exchanging a single word. I, with Misaka's fine gun control, managed to take out the shield generator and a variety of other core systems by bombarding the hull with electro-magnetic pulse cannon fire. The Rheinland vessel did attempt to fire back, but I was well outside the effective range of the weaponry it possessed. That, combined with the small frontal profile the Scylla class presents to a foe, ensured that, although I did get shaken up by the occasional hit, I was able to avoid any catastrophic damage.

The battleship had its teeth pulled out one by one. With every barrage dished out it became weaker and weaker, core systems falling to the insidious nature of the EMP cannon. Her fate was sealed when I ordered Misaka to switch from the EMP to the mortar. The second the energy banks had recovered sufficient power I ordered it fired.

The bridge went dark as Maelstrom's generators were overloaded. The only light present was the brilliant blue of the ball of energy now bound for the stationary target sitting directly in front of me. Those were the most exhilarating two seconds of my life.

The Tirpitz begun to crack apart, she had reached her end. I ordered Misaka to cease fire and we simply stood back and watched the ship rip itself apart. The green haze emitted by the engines under normal conditions was evidence the rectors were still functioning - and pushing the rest of the hull forward into itself.

I know very well what would happen if Rheinland ever gained control of Liberty. The civil freedoms that I and the entire house take for granted would die in an instant - replaced with a vicious dictatorship with absolutely no respect for the sanctity of human life.

I have killed before. But never on such a scale. I play tough on the outside, but on the inside I'm still the little girl my mother gave away 5 years ago. I cried myself to sleep the day I first killed someone. You think you gain a tough skin after doing such a thing. And you might be able to convince others of that.

Nevertheless, as I bore witness to the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands of men and women of the Rheinland nation, my blood ran cold. There was nothing I could do now. Indeed, Liberty's people were safe - I saved the lives of all the men and women in space around me and potentially an uncountable number of other lives - but at such a high cost.

With the threat cancelled I left the scene and returned to Puerto Rico. Although I had been the hero this day, I knew Liberty too well to expect to receive any credit for my actions.

I didn't realise this until Misaka told me much later, but I had been crying after the battle wound down.

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