One more day
07 Feb 2021Spectralfx
One more dayFebuary 7th, year 3307 - Simpson Depot, Facece system in ALD controlled space
Real space was torn apart in a flash of light as an imperial cutter painted midnight black, the LLV Veritas Lux Mea appeared in the vicinity of an Orbis station. The vessel proudly showcased its ALD Aquila in pristine condition. The pilot onboard indifferently requested permission to dock and was promptly acknowledged by an employee of the communication tower. Ultimately, the commander received nothing but their warmest greetings.
Before long, the massive vessel made impact on its assigned landing pad. The event let go a deep toned clanging noise has the vessel promptly started going down, within the bowels of the shipyard. During that time, under the landing pad, personnel frantically displaced fuel hoses, incendiary multi-cannon ammunition crates and Pack-hound missiles to feed the imposing vessel that was inbound.
The pilot, who was wearing the basic Lavigny's Legion flight suit casually walked down the main stairs of his imperial vessel, as many around him rearmed and refueled his trusty ship. It was at that moment that a tall and bulky woman with fluffy blond hairs, who happened to be supervising the ongoing operations took notice of him and walked up to greet him.
As she was about to express some words, she paused, for a sudden deafening sound of a vessel passing top side inconveniently interrupted her motion. Meanwhile, the pilot took out his Remlock helmet with a quick motion of his left hand to his neck. The opaque black helmet retracted backward and revealed the face of a man with silvery blue eyes, a vertical scar passed over his right eye. The pilot didn't directly look at the lady in front of him, his eyes jittered left to right as if he was searching for answers in his mind. The lady squinted at the scene and finally let go of, loudly:
-Oy skipper! long time no see! you typically don't come... this... far...
She paused as the man she served side by side with for years started staring at her in a serious way. he walked passed her saying abruptly:
-We need to talk, now.
The lady grabbed the back of her head with her right hand and started to walk to catch up with him, while letting go to herself:
-dang... a'yight...
The duo then met behind the sliding doors of some compound adjacent to the landing pad. The 5 foot 9 man was followed by the imposing stature of a 6 foot 2 woman with a bulky, muscular body. As they arrived at the compound, on the other side of it, another sliding door opened. Through it, a young lady, roughly shy of 5 foot 6, with straight black hair came rushing through, a PDA in her right hand. She said while panting, clearly exhausted from running all the way there:
-Spectral! Is-is something wr-
The man raised a finger in the air with his left hand, as to interrupt her motion. The pilot then addressed the tall blond:
-Molly, do you know how many from those that were part of our century are left in service to the legion to this day?
The imposing lady took a few seconds to process the question, an eyebrow in the air and eventually answered:
-Aye, excluding the casualties and those who didn't get on the second tour once they had their citizenship... I reckon it to be 12 legionnaires my good man. Don't get me wrong... but void based Infantry was dirty work after all.
The man nodded, staring at the floor to her feet and then looked the tall lady straight in her blue eyes and said, on a grim tone:
-make that 6.
The tall lady was then struck by disbelief, she inquired:
-Whaaaaa- when? those that sticked around were not quitters... wait, partner... don't tell me...
The man resumed nodding, still looking at her dead in the eyes. he pressed his words:
-Gone, and guess where those who did it ran to again.
The tall lady sighed and exasperatedly answered:
-Hudson Core space, where no imperial vessel can trespass to without triggering total war between superpowers... right?
The man was now completely still, resumed staring at the floor in front of him, he followed:
-Just like those days after the Pegasi pirate war. Same song, old story. Look, I need boots on the ground again Molly, that's why I'm here. I could care less for more ordnance, I've been striking at the proverbial pond with my sword for so long that it turned red, I'm exhausted and still got nothing to show up for it. what I need now is a scalpel.
As the man made his request to the tall lady he turned sideway to her, now looking her dead in the eyes again with his head slightly tilted downward.
The other young lady with black straight hair couldn't help but want to interject, she had so many objections to her loved one's plan... but couldn't express a thing, during that time she was stuck in a memory.
Seeing these two in front of her again sent her mind back to a day aboard a crampy, stinky outpost in the middle of nowhere. she was floating in zero G, inside a dark room surrounded by many others who shared her predicament. She remembered the fear and panic she felt from hearing the sound of explosives detonated in the distance, the muffled impacts of frag pellets and gauss darts going about the neighboring corridors, the sight of a blindingly bright electric torch chewing at the door's mechanism... and eventually... the silhouette of what she now knows was two heavily armored legionnaires passing their flashlights through the room filled to the brim with the black market slaves she was amongst... she was remembering the day when these two in front of her found her, the day a man fulfilled a daring promise she didn't bother believe in anymore... the day he came back for her after running away in a stolen viper MkIII, from that very same pirate lair.
tears were now streaming down her cheeks, in silence she knew it to be necessary... for the price of inaction was morally far greater.
The tall lady didn't pay much attention to the other young woman in the room, if not for a brief look, she raised and waved her hands in a gesture of surrender and told the pilot:
-Look-look I get it... I know you know what I'm capable of in that department man, but after my tour I figured I'd move on y'know... I'm just not sure yet... we used to be outcasts in imperial slavery earning our citizenships quicker that way, I... I just don't 'know man.
The man stared at the imposing lady with a frown, he had heard enough and simply dropped:
-you've got one more day.
The trio stood still in the small room while the muffled sound from a ship's thrusters leaving the station loudly filled the silence in the room.