Chapter 2.1 Operation Guillotine

[Shadow Shack]

"Interesting, so I can have both style and speed when dealing with Bosco. Good to know. So what kind of ride did you race? I take it Bosco's worked on the bike for you during that tenure?"

[umungus]

Mantin accompanies the others on shore leave. He offers to buy everyone a round of drinks at the local watering hole.
Then then goes to see if he can buy a custon autopistol to match the one he already has.

He gets on a subspace and tries to contact some of his old 'friends.' He says that he is looking for Hazel Ellery. He asks if there are any new dealers setting up shop, or new customers with any strange requests. He also tries to gather any information about the shipments of crappy guns to Clarion.

[jedion357]

IC: Hazel Ellory got Mantin's message and sent another back via subspace within just a few hours.
"Good to here from you Mantin and I'm pleased that you're doing well in the Royal Marines. I know that the militia in K'tsa Kar is not near as prestigious as the Royal Marines but they do tend to fast track former Royal Marines for commissions here, just an idea to keep at the back of your mind for down the road.

Funny you should ask about those cheap guns, they've been turning up in the hands of gang members. Not too many, mind you but they have hit the market here and no one, but street gangs, wants them as they junk. Rumor has it they came from Clarion.

Take care
Hazel

@ Shadow: I've been trying to review the cycle models but had time constraints would you care to suggest one? Niss bought a hover cycle off a student forced to sell his to make his tuition payment at University. She did it just to be nice to a classmate but found that speed and the open road took her mind of the emptiness and loneliness in her heart. She quickly started to push her cycle too hard and too fast till a near fatal accident. An off duty RM medic saved her life and even visited her a few times in the hospital. This was the impetus for her becoming a medic and joining the RM. You can either suggest and appropriate model or write the rest of the conversation between Grelude and Niss. Basically her big flaw is she's socially awkward and lonely and never sure how of herself in social situations- stems from distant career oriented parents.

[Will]

OOC: How 'bout a ride that's candy-apple red, with a ski for a wheel, that tobaggans it all the way?

BIC: The War Minister, and all the other useless Liberal Party cronies are in the command bunker reviewing the second part of the exercise, along with the Lord Commander of the Guards and Marines, Rhanda Klast, Duke of Hiatia herself. Neither one's gone out of their way to avoid spewing venom at one another...always on the floor of Parliament, where, as Lord Speaker of the Noble Assembly, Her Grace can speak her mind without fear of censure(not that it counts much, as the Lord Commander's always been appointed by the reigning monarch, while the War Minister's always been appointed by the PM), and the War Minister knows better than to make any wisecracks about "blood-bloated parasites on the body politic," anywhere in the presence of the last surviving crewmember of the originial Osprey, and hero of the abortive SDA invasion, the Frontier Civil War, and both of the last two worm wars.

Lyssa puts all that out of her mind, as she puts the F-80G Tigershark starfighter through its paces in atmo, launching a pair of sim missiles at an opposing PGC-built F-40U Vulcan III starfighter flown by the 65th Agressors, Lyssa juking, not staying with a target for long, very first rule of air warfare...ever since the cows disbanded the Star Fighter Corps in the early 130s and folded their units into the Spacefleet's Naval Starfighter Command, a great many former SFC personnel had enlisted in the Royal Marine Starfighter Command, in most cases, re-equipping with the native-built Shorthop-Graumann F-80 series starfighter.

She barrel rolls the Tigershark through a fusillade of simulated las pulses, coming up behind the Vulcan III which had fired on her, firing a simulated burst from the nose-mounted dual railgun pods, even as her back-seat driver is lining up the Vulcan's wingman for a kill shot with thelaser pods in the wings.

[Will]

Lyssa then engaging the Shark's Mag-Ax, powering between the element she'd caught by surprise, break-rolling, wrenching her ship into an Immelman turn and jumping another pair of Vulcans—painted Spacefleet blue—firing a burst from all guns before dancing away.

"Still holding on back there, Dudd?" Lyssa asks cheerfully, even with massive G's pulling at her.

The Dral whistles excitedly over her helmet's speakers, as she lines one of the aggressor bombing machines in her sights.

[Inigo]

Savrax had finished his duty assignment of servicing and conditioning beam weapons and various side arms in the armory. All his comrades detested the chore, but Sav found the simple, repetitive tasks to be somehow soothing. But even with that optimistic view, it still made for a long days work.

He intended to search the grid for some parts to use in refurbishing his old SpeedHawk 350 when he noticed a recast of the Holo 5 News report about the capture of the GOC by the UPF squad. He was very pleased by the news of the capture and appreciative of Lt. Antrim’s professionalism and mutual respect. He was of course very troubled by Abra Walkins obtuse insinuations about the RCM simply allowing the GOC to have free reign. As though none of them cared that the GOC were actively trying to kill him and this comrades. He took a moment to ponder what possible angles Abra could have for advancing such a preposterous idea to the public. He makes a mental note to pay more attention to Mrs. Walkins and her reporting as well as any other reports that carry that same ‘flavor’.

With that, he decides to head out early to get some more gunnery practice. Alyssa had mentioned the ORCAS maneuvers for the next day and he wanted some simm time before riding shotgun with her again.

[Inigo]

(the following day…or half day…or however it goes on clarion)

Sav returns to his quarters after ORCAS, mildly pleased with his performance and greatly pleased with his foresight. Had he not had the wisdom, or just good fortune of skipping breakfast, he is sure he would not have been able to use his targeting scope due to it being covered with the regurgitated remains of a mediocre meal because of Alyssa’s energetic aerobatic skills. For some reason, atmospheric G-force is unsettling to him whereas it just seems to invigorate her. After some time doing breathing exercises to calm his excited gastric acids, he decides to check in with mother and stepdad and father as well via net-mail. He also sends a message to Master Melke. He wants an opportunity to practice his Troda Dea. If things were really getting dangerous for Royal Marines, he would feel more comfortable with better martial arts skills.

[Inigo]

(Several days later)

Savrax walks down through a shopping district looking for a decent shop to purchase melee weapons from. He is particularly looking for a force axe and a good sonic sword. He wants to use them both in his Troda Dea to see if one suits him better than the other to work with. He is well into his journey when he remembers that he is supposed to be traveling in groups. He almost misses a step as he is walking when the realization that he is alone hits him. How could he have been so careless? Perhaps he was preoccupied with the hopes of scoring well enough to get upgraded in his gunnery skills. The reason didn’t matter at this point. It didn’t matter how he had gotten in this situation. Fact is, he was in it now. At least he had the where-with-all to secret his vibroknife in the back of his waist band and had his m-2 Rafflur as a side arm.

He looked around but didn’t see any fellow RM’s in uniform that he could tag along with. Now he just intended to find a good shop, purchase his things and hop on a public transport and hope to find some Marines on it going his way.

OOC: Sorry for having to play catch up. I've been incommunicado for the last week or so

[Terl Obar]

OOC: I like the idea of the custom harness. So it would cost me an extra 120 cr for the harness, mods and the armor over the regular price plus I need to personally pick up the three "standard" progits, correct? Or could I just use the ones from my issued harness? Anyway, I have the room but maybe not the cash, however, I can rearrange my purchases to free up the cash. I'll take a look at the changes I need to make tomorrow. (I basically will have to pass immediately on the programmable progit to get the 3 standard ones if I can't pull them from my issued harness.)

Mulling over the idea of his fellow RCM, Tanar likes the idea of having a modified combat harness. He's a little bummed that he'll have to sacrifice a couple of his planned progits to make space for "required" ones but he'll find a way to manage. The advantages of having his robocom kit contents hand should more than make up for it.

After he gets off shift, Tanar heads out to find a surplus store and look up the seamstress the other tech mentioned. While he's out, he runs into Savrax and they both realize that they had been out alone. Working quickly to remedy that oversight, they hook up and head off together to complete their shopping for the evening and swapping stories on their activities since they got back to port.

[jedion357]

OOC: I like the idea of the custom harness. So it would cost me an extra 120 cr for the harness, mods and the armor over the regular price plus I need to personally pick up the three "standard" progits, correct? Or could I just use the ones from my issued harness? Anyway, I have the room but maybe not the cash, however, I can rearrange my purchases to free up the cash. I'll take a look at the changes I need to make tomorrow. (I basically will have to pass immediately on the programmable progit to get the 3 standard ones if I can't pull them from my issued harness.)

Mulling over the idea of his fellow RCM, Tanar likes the idea of having a modified combat harness. He's a little bummed that he'll have to sacrifice a couple of his planned progits to make space for "required" ones but he'll find a way to manage. The advantages of having his robocom kit contents hand should more than make up for it.

After he gets off shift, Tanar heads out to find a surplus store and look up the seamstress the other tech mentioned. While he's out, he runs into Savrax and they both realize that they had been out alone. Working quickly to remedy that oversight, they hook up and head off together to complete their shopping for the evening and swapping stories on their activities since they got back to port.

OOC: Go ahead and use the progits off you marine belt and just don't brag about doing so in front of a marine quartermaster and just replace them before you have a full layout inspection of all your gear or are required to turn the combat harness in for some reason.

IC: Savrax and Tanar were working there way through the semi crowded market when Tanar noticed a dark haired human make a sour face at him and Savrax, though Savrax seem to be looking the other way. He wondered what the dark haired man's problem was and chocked it up to being a Liberal or even a GOC sympathizer. None the less he felt uncomfortable enough by the encounter that he made sure his side arm was loose in its holster.
Savrax did notice that and asked, "What?" with a concerned look and resting his hand on his side arm.
Tanar used a head nod to point at the dark haired man who was now moving down the street ahead of them. Savrax check his 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions and loosened his side arm in its holster. Tanar explained what he had seen quietly while pretending to look in a shop window. The continued their shopping while watching the dark haired man and the crowd around them.

Since they were focused on the dark haired man they were watching when he passed close to a club that employed a holo screeb jammer at its front door as a security measure. The "man" wasn't a man at all but a woman and with in seconds she was past the field of the jammer and the holo screen re-asserted the image of a dark haired man.

Suddenly Savrax laid a hand on Tanar's arm and said, "Did you see that? That was Abra Walkins from Holo 5 News!"
They were quietly discussing this and still following her when she entered a cafe and sat at a table with another man. Savrax pulled Tanar aside to "window shop" across the street from the cafe but still keep an eye on Abra.

They were both observed the man pass Abra a note which she read and past back. They looked at each other when two things happened simultaneously, the man with Abra looked straight at them and both their chronocom's chirped.

Both chronocoms had identical text messages, "Please keep moving and don't look at the cafe, I'll explain latter, Ajax."

Tanar and Savrax looked at each other and started moving again but Savrax couldn't help casting a surreptitious at the cafe and saw that both Abra and her friend were gone.

A little latter Ajax commed them and simply explained that they were he couldn't give details but they had wandered into a surveillance and their presence was jeopardizing it.

OOC: Rith & Tith's Exotic Weapons Armory is a good place to pick up something as exotic as a force ax Though when it comes to a regular old sonic sword he will push to sell you a more ornate "blade" that could be as much as 1.5 to 3 times the value of a normal sonic sword but if you balk he wont let a sale go and will sell you a boring old standard sonic sword as long as you're buying a force ax

[Shadow Shack]

@ Shadow: I've been trying to review the cycle models but had time constraints would you care to suggest one? Niss bought a hover cycle off a student forced to sell his to make his tuition payment at University. She did it just to be nice to a classmate but found that speed and the open road took her mind of the emptiness and loneliness in her heart. She quickly started to push her cycle too hard and too fast till a near fatal accident. An off duty RM medic saved her life and even visited her a few times in the hospital. This was the impetus for her becoming a medic and joining the RM. You can either suggest and appropriate model or write the rest of the conversation between Grelude and Niss. Basically her big flaw is she's socially awkward and lonely and never sure how of herself in social situations- stems from distant career oriented parents.

OOC --- if it were me calling the shots, and just to make Niss more interesting as an NPC, I'd go with the less-popular racer/more popular hooligan bike...the Fuell Thunderstorm FR900. Not the best racing bike but eligible to compete, and it would fit right in for Bosco's shop as the happy medium between Hog Heaven and Hoodlum Heart-throbbing. But since Bosco deals with everything and anything, really any of the road-legal race replicas will suffice. I'll run with the Fuell for the two way conversation below, feel free to edit it if you feel better having Niss on a full blown racer instead. The converation will work either way, I'm simply opting for the more enigmatic route.

BIC --- The conversation:

Niss's abdomen exhales heavily, and she begins her tale.

"I picked up a Thunderstorm FR900 from a local student at the university who was desperate to sell, probably needed the credits for tuition. Suffice it to say, we were both happy with the deal. He turned me on to Bosco's shop with a high recommendation, so after growing into the machine I wanted to try a hand at racing. Bosco fixed me up good, he sold me a sweet performance package featuring aftermarket gyrostabilizers to improve handling, air brakes for improved braking, re-geared transaxle for snappier acceleration, and a stage 3 engine rebuild along with a high performance racing chip."

She looks down at the table and mutters "Probably not the best bike nor the best mods for a beginning rider."

Grelude sits down. "Hey, we were all young, dumb, and full of chum once. I haven't outgrown that stage yet myself, but at least you're still amongst the living. What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger."

Niss's head raises, with light returning to her eyes.

Grelude winks an eyespot, "So what happened?"

Niss twitches an antenna. "I took a few track days and finally signed on for a solo run. I was carving the course neatly, until the third lap. Eager to improve my lap time, I took a turn too hot. The rear hoverfans started to fishtail and I was banked too steep. Surely the bike was about to capsize and I'd be riding the plasphalt instead. I paniced and made the classic rookie mistake on letting off the rear brake. The hoverfans suddenly blasted in, and as they restabilized the bike catapulted me away from the apex. I hit the ground hard and began a rolling slide into the field. That's when the bike, with all the additional mass and momentum exceeding my own, finally caught up with me. It landed on my abdomen, bouncing off me and hurtiling ahead...breaking up into five or six pieces after the damage was done."

"Ouch, classic highside..." Grelude adds.

"Yeah, it knocked the wind right out of me and crushed my air sacs, " Niss continues. "I wasn't even awake for the rest. Luckily an off duty medic was standing by, he saved my life. I woke up in the hospital, this medic stuck by my side and nursed me back to good health. He visited me often, even brought my track coach in a few times. In hindsight, it was probably better had I just rode it out. At least if I dumped it anyways, the bike would have lead me in the slide. I guess you can slide at any speed, the real injuries don't rack up until the body actually contacts anything...anyways that medic opened my eyes and right then and there I knew what I wanted to do with my life."

Grelude stretches a pseudopod acros the table and pats her on the shoulder. "Well, I've been wanting a sled for some time. Nothing crazy, I've got some prior riding time behind me via rentals that were entry to mid level standards for the most part. I've been thinking about a Pan Galactixon Speedster 553. Not the best looking in stock guise, but that's what Bosco's shop is all about. Not styfe-balls crazy power either, but enough to have plenty of fun with. Besides, I've been reading up on how some 553 owners have mated Fuell Odysseus FR600 and Thunderstorm FR900 engines to their frames and opting for the stage one to three rebuilds available for both. It's something I can literally grow with, never actually needing to buy another bike as I go with each upgrade instead."

Niss's eyes light up again. "Sounds like you've done your homework. I wish I hadn't jumped in over my head and tried a similar route." Niss begins to admire Grelude's sense of responsibility, he always came across as reckless and rude, at least against the opposition anyways. He seems to be rather amiable, despite his reputation in combat. Anti-social in a social sort of way? Better to have him on your side than against it? Curious where this might lead, knowing full well that she never got along in public socially, she seems to easily open up with this dralasite thanks to a common ground. She packs her goods. "I'm game, let's go see Bosco!"

[jedion357]

IC: posted by net mail

First email to mom and stepdad

Mom, I have been fortunate enough to be assigned to the Pelican. Its crew contains many of the heroes reported on from the "Roost" incident. So far I have not embarassed myself and I hope to be accepted in their company. It makes me proud to count myself in the number of these heroic marines. My first serious action was the battle at Wandren Base with the pirates. I scored a great shot on one of those pirate vessels. I feel no regrets for the demise of those treatourus villans. They corrupt or society and are a danger to the crown. As you are aware, they are involved with the GOC. It's also a common belief that Streele is involved in aiding the GOC. Just to what degree and what proof can be mounted is yet to be seen.

Bereen, have you guys are EverSafe seen anything connected to the GOC or felt the ramifications of their activities? I am afraid that these terrorists are only getting more bold. Even the media seems to be working in their favor a bit. That Abra Walkin seems to intent on making the Royal Marines look incompetent. The liberals never cease to amaze me with extents of their propaganda machines.

You two be safe. I'll keep in touch.
Love,
Savrex

Letter from Bereen (step dad)

Son,

Your mother and I are very proud and mother had bragged about you quite often. No doubt you wish she wouldn't but she loves you and couldn't be prouder of you.

Obviously, in light of the tensions caused by the terrorist, Eversafe has posted record numbers in the last quarterly report.
The corporation has decided to donate a hefty percentage of the winfall profits to the relief fund for the families of the victims of the bombing. Its only right as it somehow feels indecent to profit from the actions of these scum.

You asked about Abra Walkin but did you realize that she attended the University of Moline right down the street from Eversafe's head quarters. I dare say that I don't need to remind you that U of M isn't known as Liberal U without good reason.

Your mother has been busy baking I shouldn't think that a care package will be turning up at Clarion Station soon.

Stay safe and know our love goes with you always,
Bereen

[Inigo]

Sav's distrust of Abra and natural desire to see her undoing makes it difficult for him to move on. But he has full faith in Ajax and anyone connected to him to handle the situation better than he could. As he moves on down the street he tells Tanar about his suspicions that she is at the very least a GOC sympathizer. In the back of his mind, he is chastising himself for being spotted so easily not only by Ajax, but also by the man with Abra Walkin. But he decides to cut himself some slack seeing as how the uniform does not allow him to blend in that well. He makes a mental note to check and see later if Ajax is able to share any information concerning Abra and her business there. As he and Tanar go on their way, he didn’t notice that he was continuing to keep a weathered eye out on the crowd and hazard some glances behind him.

OOC: Savrax is willing to pay double for a weapon that he is interested in if he truly believes that it is of exceptional quality. He isn’t interested in a display piece though. Its quality has to be more than form. It has to translate to function.

[Will]

(Several hours after the starfighter exercise)

"Tonight on the Frontier News Network," FNN's Mollie Ivens says,"Holo 5 News; Whores of the Corporate Dictatorship, an in-depth investigative report by FNN's Edwin R. Murrough into Holo 5 News' biased reporting practices and who really writes their scripts."

"Who else?" Lyssa says, nervously fidgeting in her seat in the green room.

"Now," Mollie says,"back to our show. With me in our Valentina studio is Clarion Royal Marine Lieutenant Karl Jeffers, formerly in command of Wandren Base. Lieutenant, can you tell me how the Spacefleet 19th Tactical Starfighter Squadron received the information concerning the Guards of Clarion transport?"

"It was relayed to Wandren Base by the Pelican, m'um," Jeffer's holo replied. "As the Pelican was on another priority assignment—that of tracking down a missing Streel ag ship involved in illegal narcotics manufacturing—we relayed her telemetry to the nearest friendly unit, that of Leftenant Antrim and his pilots."

"So," ivens says,"far from the Royal Marines being asleep at the switch, as some other-than-loyal sources would have our viewers believing, they knew of the contact and chose to pass it on to those they thought were their allies, while they took care of more pressing business."

"Yes, m'um," Jeffers says. "The Pelican and two other Royal Marine vessels interdiced puirates not only involved with the illegal drug trade on Wandren, but who were also rsponsible for providing the weapons and munitions used in the Roost attack."

"I see," Ivens says, then turning to the cretin seated opposite Jeffers. "And, when you attempted to correct Ms walkin's...misguided...impression of events—"

"You saw for yourself, Ms Ivens," Buzz Antrim replies." She completely ignored anything I said which didn't cast aspersions against a service which has fought valiantly against every threat to not just this world, but the entire Frontier as a whole. The Marines even fought for the Federation when the Federation was allowing itself to fall under the jackboot of Jack Ryan and his cronies nine decades ago...hells, tone of their own, Vicent Morgaine himself, fought for the Federation even before there was a Federation, both against Hazick Naar and the worms when they first appeared in the Frontier. Surely Ms Walkin didn't mean to imply that he was incompetent."

"I'm not sure what she was attempting to imply," Ivens replies. "only she can answer that."

[jedion357]

OOC: Savrax is willing to pay double for a weapon that he is interested in if he truly believes that it is of exceptional quality. He isn’t interested in a display piece though. Its quality has to be more than form. It has to translate to function.

OOC: NO worries (i thought that would be your reaction) I only specified that Rith would try to sell you sonic sword that carries more value for the workmanship but basically performs the same as my original description of his shop was "Exotic Weapons" and I consider anything in the AD equipment list to be the opposite of exotic. Stuff on the Zebs could be (Omega bolt is a good example) and any other source (SFman will likely carry exotic weapons status unless its description suggest otherwise like the entry level fire arms in SFman #1)

BTW in what fashion would you see the sonic sword's performance improved as it it pretty much the premier melee weapon with the only draw back that its useless in vacuum? I'm just curious.

IC: Later, as Tanar and Savrax, are wrapping up their shopping, they receive a summons to the Queen's Special Investigator's office relayed to them by Ajax. Ajax apologizes for all the cryptic cloak and dagger earlier but they had wandered into the middle of stake out and were likely to spook the suspected GOC operative who had been waiting at that cafe.
Ajax's old mentor, Panos Geordi, debriefed them, "I'm surprised to learn that the GOC operative was meeting with Abra Walkins but then she was always too blinded by her liberal background to see past the end of her nose. This does expand our investigation though. Thank you for your assistance in this matter and I'm sorry to inform you that this matter and what you've learned today is, for now classified. But I'm sure I don't need to lecture Royal Marines about duty. Please avoid direct contact with Ms. Walkin but if anything else unusual happens concerning this matter feel free to com me. I'd say to com Ajax but I understand that his detached duty is about up as the Pelican is soon to put to space again."
Panos handed both Tanar and Savrax a security smart business card each. Once they each touch their card, its advanced security features encode their DNA and finger print. The ultra rare and expensive cards were designed to encode the DNA of their recipient and would only show their printed information to that being.
He then continued, "If you're unsure about reporting something to me ask Ajax, I have complete confidence in him."
He then stood and shook their hands indicating that the meeting is over.

[umungus]

Mantin checks on the web or whatever ya call it on Clarion. He tries to find any trail of mechants buying cheap metal; or any kind of facilities that could potentially build cheap weapons. Makes a few phone calls to some scrap yards and smelting facilities, to see what turns up.

[Will]

(A few moments later)

"With me now," Ivens says,"is one of the survivors of the Moline bombings, hero of both the Roost attack and the Battle of Wandren, Clarion Royal Marine Midshipman Alyssa Rhiannon Blue."

Lyssa dryswallows, trying not to show the worlds her massive stage fright—she hasn't had a case this bad since she had to play a flower in that school play in grade 3, and that had been embarassing enough....

"Midshipman," Ivens asks,"what do you remember about that day?"

Another dry swallow....

...Miss Dearborn is just about to call the children together for story time, when a white flash turns the day care into a roar of screaming and whimpering, Lyssa fumbling about blindly, something wet and sticky running down over one eye, trying to pick out Chloe Jane's crying out of all that bloody squalling.

Her foot goes out from under her, something slick on the floor, Lyssa falling onto her back, realizing, for the first time, that there's a bit of metal stuck in her arm.

Then she struggles to her feet, able to see out of her left eye...,.

"..next thing I knew," Lyssa says, sniffling back tears,"the whole voggin' building had come down on top of me...Miss Dearborn was dead, half her body underneath the rubble, the other half...."

She trails off, Ivens handing her a glass of water, which she drinks....

[Will]

"...Lyssa," Mum says, gently holding her by her shoulders,"I just want you to know that even mums make mistakes sometimes, kay?"

There are tears in her eyes, Mum dryswallowing, before telling her.

"Mums make mistakes, and it's nothing to do with their kids, sometimes, the mistakes we make end up hurting them, and they don't know it, and they should have, but—"

The buzzer on her chronocom goes off, Mum saying,"We'll talk later, over ice cream maybe."

She kisses the top of her oldest daughter's head, something she hasn't done since Lyssa was six, hugging her tight, before letting go, and whispering through her tears,"off you go, poppet."

Lyssa turns back towards the day care's open door...

"...take your time, hun," Ivens' Laconian-accented voice says reassuringly, as Lyssa drinks her water, takes a deep breath.

Tells the worlds every moment of the day she's been reliving for the last twenty years, Lyssa sobbing uncontrollably by the time she gets to the part about finding poor Chloe Jane dead in the rubble.

She didn't think it would still hurt this vogging much, not after twenty years.

But, it doesn't seem like it has been twenty years.

Eventually, she composes herself, manages to find the strength to tell the rest of the story, of attending Mokveh's and Niccols' trials, how she didn't feel anything at all when she'd seen Mokveh shoved out the airlock and left to die in space for his crimes, even after Spacefleet tried numerous times to bring the case back into their jurisdiction, after the cows had tried pressuring Clarion to do just that, only to have the Royal Marines and the militias of several of Clarion's allies blockade the Prenglar system for three months, after Star Law had tried delaying Mokveh's execution for crap reasons.

Even after the Council of Worlds and their corporate media tried painting Mokveh and his co-conspirator, Landfleet Gunnery Sergeant Terry Niccles, as heros influenced by the Sathar, or heros striking a blow in a 'holy war against the butchers of Planarion,' and if that war claimed children, what of it?

[Will]

"Do you believe that Lieutenant Mokveh and Gunnery Sergeant Niccles were under Sathar influence when they carried out the bombing?" Ivens asks.

"Star Law itself could find no trace of any of the methods the Sathar use to control their agents,"Lyssa replies. "In fact, both beings were active members of the Free Frontiersman Association and the new Anti-Satharian League, both organizations who, by the way, supply funding from offworld to the Liberal Party and the Liberation Front."

"That datafile," she adds,"was the only datafile to come up missing when Captain-General Jon Asscrofte ordered an internal audit of the RCMC during his attempt to delay what was coming to that Yazarian piece of creet. Naturally, Asscrofte had no explanation."

"And," Ivens' other guest, retired Star Law Captain-General Rhiannon Moseley, pipes,"nor has he or the cows ever bothered to provide one."

"Quite," Ivens remarks, before getting up to shake Lyssa's hand, and hug her warmly.

"Thank you," she says,"for coming on the show."

"I almost didn't, you know," Lyssa says, forcing herself to stay in control.

Ivens nods, before turning back to the holocams to tell her viewers what was next when they came back from commercial, Lyssa, without a word, getting up and walking backstage when the ON AIR light goes out.

[Will]

That miserable cretin is waiting for her.

"Go away," she says to him, Antrim not getting the vogging hint.

"I know how you feel," he has the gall to tell her.

"Do you?!" she replies, walking away from him.

"Yes, I do," the cretin replies, steel in his voice.

"The hell you do!" Lyssa screams, rounding on Antrim, this close to killing him here and now.

In a much colder voice, she adds:

"It's been my expirience that all Spacefleeters know how to feel is exultation over taking the lives of civilians."

Antrim bristles.

"Mokveh and Niccles were traitors, Midshipman," he spits out.

"Not according to your superiors, Leftenant," Lyssa snaps back, before turning on her heel and walking away.

"Mad Jack Legrange's thugs killed my mom and pop!" Antrim screams at her back. "I was just a vogging kid, didn't have an auntie willing to take me in, and a V'ist Lat corporate orphanage ain't no friggin' pleasuredome, not unless you have eight legs and could click your voggin' consonants!"

"Yeah," he adds, as Lyssa stops dead in her tracks, in spite of herself,"I had it worse than you, girlie. Know what I did when I was sixteen?! I friggin ran with the Quitters, I...I killed more than my fair share of folk, maybe some of whom actually had it coming, and I would've ended up in some alley in Gozzorf with a vibroknife slash across my gut or a las in the back of the head, if someone on that creethole planet hadn't stepped in and given a damn."

"Really?" Lyssa replies coldly, fighting down the part of her who feels sorry for the bastard, as she just walks away.