Returning to Duty Soon
01 Dec 2022Ember Lacson
I have spent very little time in a cockpit over the last month and a half or so. I'll fully acknowledge that I probably could have done a better job preparing for war. But on their death bed, nobody has ever said, "I wish I spent more time at the office" or "I wish I spent more time grinding and less time cultivating relationships." So, about six weeks ago, after I took the maiden voyage in my Vette and when it became clear the Anomalies—now known as the Maelstroms—were converging on human space, I decided it was time to take some time. I re-engineered and re-outfitted Phanero, my Phantom, dusted off my Sol permit, and at the beginning of November we left the Morningstar in the capable hands of its crew and left for the cradle of humanity, the place of my birth, the Pale Blue Dot called Earth.We spent the month going from place to place. We saw Everest from the sky. We saw Crater Lake, the Grand Canyon, and Utah's wonderful sandstone arches from the ground. We swam in crystal clear tropical waters and relaxed in Montana hot springs. We rubbed elbows with celebrities in Hollywood and spent a night on the town in Vegas. We half joked about getting married while we were there. We didn't, but the looming threat of the Maelstroms, she and I have started talking in earnest about what we want this relationship to become. We've only been playing with the idea of dating for a couple months now, but if the next day may be our last....
I'm going to do whatever I can to minimize the likelihood of that. We're not leaving for Colonia like so many other CMDRs, but I've officially hired Nicole as co-captain of the Morningstar, where she will be living until we know more about this whole thing. She will handle operations while I'm away. I won't be on the front lines, and I won't be doing AX missions until we figure out what we can do to combat these Maelstroms, the Orthrus-class interceptors, and all the new and unknown dangers this stage of the war has brought. In the meantime, I'm planning to gather as many engineering materials as I can so that if I need to put together a quick ship build I can do so. I'm also going to be bounty hunting and maybe some mining to stock away money in case I need to buy another Chieftain or something. Or maybe we'll be seeing some more hybrid tech in the near future.
In any case, I'm going to move forward without being reckless. I'll leave that to the rest of the AXI, who are going in balls to the wall, throwing themselves into the Maelstrom with wanton disregard for their own lives. And I get it. Kingfisher proved, at least to me, that this his gone far past diplomacy. They will not stop until we are destroyed. But as I have said before, I will not go quietly into that night.