I cannot believe I managed to dig this one up on my old files. It's not just a few years later but a god forsaken 12 years later. Several deployments went by and now I find myself alone and surrounded by lunatics and cult figures. Their heart is in the right place, or so it seems, but this is not where I ever imagined myself to be. Without a direct line home, even when it was mostly a one-way signal, I feel... abandoned?
Some things never change, no matter my identity or role. The deployment with Auxesia ended up painfully. Looking at my last entry I should've seen it coming. There is no room for doubts in this world. Not long after that last entry they took me home. It was at the cost of someone I held dear back then, Tacitus. He is no longer with us, and I fear the day where Hunt finds out what really happened out there.
The new deployment to the Liberty front, namely the Xeno Alliance was a breath of fresh air when I got there. It took a while to garner enough trust to work my way into a good position where I could be of use to my House. I never imagined I'd spent a quarter of my life with them. Atka was where they stationed me for the most part as part of the Atkan Rangers. I made friends and enemies, people I will not forget about but more than anything, I took lives.
Years go by, quiet years in the ice caves of Atka before Erie happened. Those with the skills were transferred to help the Zoners in their guerrilla style warfare on the surface. The alliance put a good few assets to use to give the Navy a hard time. The fights were not easy. The Liberty Navy is a lot more menacing than a few underpaid mercs, which were the guys we had to face against on Atka.
Not much later the events around Sudbury started. They asked for volunteers to go down to the surface, so I went down there. We had no idea what we were up against. What -that thing- was. The glow was mesmerising, menacing and... endearing? We all looked up at in awe as we build the temporary outposts and shelters. That was before the rain of metal came down. Fights in orbit broke out and we had to seek shelter. Some unfortunate souls did not manage to outrun the rain of debris. Shields quickly solved our problem and things settled down.
My Sudbury deployment got a strange twist during one of my rare days off when I ran into Joshua Hunt on Fontana. I was enjoying a beer in the bar. When I got back to my room, he was there. A strange conversation followed but once again I managed to slither my way around him. While it had been years, I did feel tense, he was different, I was different, yet everything was all too familiar. The time where he confronted me came to mind. The mistrust between us, friendship, old memories and flying alongside each other, it all came together.
He had a job for me to earn his trust again. I was hesitant to accept. I had to get back in touch with the homefront to make sure all of this went according to plan. A risky meeting with the BDM was arranged where I explained the situation, my assignment to the Xeno Alliance, my past with Auxesia and so on. The BDM suggested to follow up on Auxesia, there were already enough eyes on Sudbury after all.
My following weeks were filled with double work. Gather information for Hunt, running regular operations on Sudbury and staying in touch with the home front. Getting intel send home was difficult but I managed. The daily run around the different sensor posts we had set up allowed me to squeeze in encrypted messages. Though, it quickly became clear there was no information to gather from the alien anomaly. We watched it in silence before they took us off the surface and instead let the Order take over monitoring of the surface.
After being retrieved from Sudbury I found myself back or Erie. I was often by myself or a small team depending on the missions we'd have to carry out. These were mostly just recon, intel gathering as well as sabotage missions on critical Navy infrastructure. I knew we couldn't stop them but at least we could make them pay a high enough price to perhaps make them reconsider their efforts. I did feel comfortable fighting, killing and generally carrying out these tasks. The Liberty government doesn't deserve any pity.
Meanwhile the information was ready for Hunt. We met up in the forests of Erie, he got what he wanted and made true to his promise. He's different from what I remember, and he just proved it with this deal.
***
More recon, more sabotage, near misses left and right. The Navy did not play games. One night however, not long after Hunt had left, I got another visitor in my safe house. They introduced themselves as CS, short for Civil Servant. They never shared their real name, but they did share information only a select few in Sirius would know. He has a history with the BDM, MND as well as Hunt, that much was clear. He wanted the same information I got for Hunt. I was reluctant to give it to him and I felt my control on the situation slipping. How many more people knew about my little side quests?
Skipping ahead again, CS stayed for a couple of missions. Call it a means to build trust between us while I tried to figure the man out. Before I could jump to any conclusions, my mission on Erie was cut short as well. Not because I was pulled away from my tasks but because of a mission going south. I got myself in a precarious situation after a Navy ammunition transport was shot down and the following explosion caught me off guard. I got flung through the hair, broke some bones, lacerations. I was barely alive. CS saw it all from a distance and came to my aid. He dragged me to safety while the Navy was hunting us down. I couldn't walk and struggled to keep conscious, but he offered a way out.
***
Lebendig, the new me. It's been months since the accident on Erie. Now I find myself flying for the Platform. A new purpose? that's yet to be seen.