Tamara Lasliana McCovery, Director of The Company.
What had started out as a short term fix to keep her company running from a distance whilst being on Rubi-Ka had not lasted as well as she had hoped. It was no good just having visual link or holo meetings with those under her command and the more important clients from her apartment in Jobe.
Looking out she took time to savour the view one last time. She had already had all of her things packaged up and sent ahead of her.
Turning back to the paper on the bare kitchen top infront of her she signed the lease termination and walked from the apartment not looking back.
She continued on her way through to Borealis.
Still nothing much had changed even after months of not seeing it.
Walking, her feet took her to Newland. The quaint town where she had spent her childhood fending for herself reminded her of good and bad times, frowning she made her way out of the gates.
The extraction point was set for a remote part of Newland Desert. Her watch said she had plenty of time, so she took to a slow walk, soaking up the sights, smells and sounds for one last time.
After a few hours of walking through the deserts she approached the top of a rise, just as a shuttle descended.
it hove along skimming across the surface towards her. At the last minute it stopped and rotated on the spot, its ramp lowering.
Without a word or a backward glance she walked up the ramp as the shuttle began to power away from the desert and into orbit.
A few days later.
Echo-11. It was always cold here but surrounded as she was now by work colleagues and subordinates she felt no time for the cold. Instead standing there in her crisp black uniform, a small silver pin denoting her rank, she quietly ordered and organised the deployment of the majority of The Companies assests into the field.
Ursen stood guarding the entrance to the command room, checking the ID's of the aides coming and going from elsewhere. The black combat armour suited him.
The holo picter table infront showed the gains they had already made in the hours since their first assault.
An adjutant came across to her holding a datapad, and held it out for her.
Without stopping the flow of deployment orders, Lasliana took it and read it over.
"Cut our losses with the Cerulean Company and leave it. Transfer anything you can over to the main holdings and see if you can scare up Mkvenner's group. They havent checked in yet. I dont like it when I dont know what he is doing. And if Minister Wright has any problems forward them to me straight away."
"Yes Ma'am." came the crisp reply.
The adjutant stood there for a moment longer.
"Yes?" Lasliana asks not looking away from the rapidly updating representation of the campaign infront of her.
"Are you back in charge for good now? Only people are saying they hope you dont leave incase another, well... another November. He nearly ran us into the ground, and got alot of people killed." The young adjutant looked away somewhat abashed after his outburst.
The room went quiet as all eyes turned to regard Lasliana and the adjutant.
Lasliana looked around the room guaging the feelings of those who were relying on her for leadership.
"I am back for good Adjutant Kappas. I dont intend to leave The Company ever. I have missed it. I have missed you all. Rubi-Ka is a lost cause to me, neutrality there is no longer something i wish to dedicate my life to protecting."
A few gasps escaped one or two of the tactical analysts at the back of the room.
"Let me tell you this.
I ask for time. Time to right the wrongs which have been accorded to us by the likes of November, the likes of the competition, those who have played us and used us.
If anything I'm sorry that its taken this long for me to realise my place is here.
I want to see The Company become by far the best in the field.
I want to see us become feared.
I want to see us become the first and only choice when there is a need for a swift strike or a problem which needs solving in the most proffessional manner. We will all work together to the best of our abilities in this.
Those who do not and do not strive for the best, endanger not only this vision, but our lives and the lives of our loved ones. The lives of those in the field now as we speak.
I have seen much and travelled far, as many of you have.
If there is anything in this universe worth protecting, worth fighting for, worth dying for its the bonds of fellowship and family.
We are a family.
You are all my family. Blood doesnt matter, its the fact you choose to stand here with me, and each other.
Now may I suggest we all get back to work and show these amateurs how good we are and earn that nice big bonus in our contract."
A low roaring filled the room after a short period of silence, as thousands of voices at the other end of speakers and headsets roared out their approval from across a distant battlefield.
One of the communications anaylsts looked towards Lasliana as a frown creased her brow.
"Er, that went out across the whole secure bandwidth, I dont know how that could have happened. Sorry Ma'am."
After a couple more moments the cheering subsided and everyone got back to work with renewed vigour.
Max Asule Rm/Winters. Detective Sargeant of the Department of Investigations.
He found himself running like never before.
Down to the left, dodge to the right, dive past the guard and continue onwards towards the shuttleport.
Asule found himself panting hard as he ran at his terminal speed, sweat stinging his eyes and the burning of acid building up in his thighs and calves from the extreme pressure he was placing on his body.
He rounded a corner and skidded into a slide, under the legs of a Unicorn Specialist, rising behind him, he flung himself back into his headlong sprint ignoring the shouts of bemusement behind him and the blood welling from the grazes on his side.
fifteen minutes later he was crouched opening a cargo container of luxury goods in an Omni-Trans depot.
The Shuttleport had been far too obvious and was already being watched.
With a sound of screeching metal he managed to pull the lever to swing open the inspection hatch.
In moments he was inside and the hatch locked behind him.
Turning on a small light he settled into making himself secure and comfortable in his ride to wherever.
48 hours later.
The container had been dropped off an hour before, but as of yet no one had come to inspect its contents.
Asule sat facing the hatch with a pistol in hand.
A scraping jolted him to nervous wakefulness. He aimed the pistol at the door, lamenting the loss in his mind of the Ofab Cobra Mk6.
The hatch cracked open allowing in a shaft of harsh sunlight.
Without waiting to see who it was Asule depressed the trigger and fired a burst at the hazy shape.
There was a brief scream and the sound of a body hitting the floor as more shadows passed infront of the inspection hatch.
A voice suddenly asked what he had been praying would not come.
"Asule you in there?" a shadow moved infront of the light once more briefly and Asule opened fire again.
he was rewarded with the sound of a grunt of pain.
A moment later there was a dull clang as something was thrown inside with him.
There was a dull thud and everything went dark.
Pain.
Pain was all he could feel, it was warm yet agonising.
Slowly his perception faded and the blackness and numbness grew until there was nothing.
Father Langton, Retired Doctor and priest.
He woke up early, the wind banging at the window. The sunlight filtered in through cracks in the curtains and hap hazardly lit the room.
Suddenly the window banged again as it swung inwards on its hinges.
Sand swirled through the air and came to rest on the floor.
Moving over to the window Langton looked out into the sandstorm which was raging outside. He looked left and right, but saw nothing.
Just as he was about to draw his head back in and close the window securely he caught sight of movement from the corner of his eye.
Turning he stared hard, looking to make out whatever it was that he had seen.
The sands swirled and lifted for a brief moment in which he saw a female figure wrapped in sandy brown robes of simple cloth, beckoning to him.
And then she was gone, as the sand hid her once more.
Langton stepped backwards in shock. He stumbled back and fell down into a rickety chair, where he sat motionless for a long time.
Finally he rose to his feet and dressed quickly. Taking his bag, his book and a little food and water he made his way out of his apartment and out of Newland City. He was quickly lost in the sandstorm, having passed by the gates.
The Militia guards watched him go, tottering from side to side as the wind blew at him, until he finally disappeared. A few minutes later when the winds subsided one of them thought he caught sight of the old man walking up to a woman clad in brown robes of the rise of a distant dune, before they disappeared in heat haze.
Larken Aiden
Larken regretted the speed with which he had to leave behind Newland, its Council and Rubi-Ka. He Especially missed not having the oppertunity to explain properly to his parents what he had been offered, or to anyone for that matter.
The luxury shuttle was ferrying him away from all which he had known towards a new beginning.
He had recieved word in the last few hours that he had been accepted on an exciting new research project he had applied for months ago before he had become the Newland City sicence minister.
Still he wanted to make his mark on the world and this was hopefully the best way of making sure his name went down in history.
Looking out of the window he watched as the shape of jobe gradually faded away along with the geography of Rubi-Ka.
A fresh start, a new beginning, new and exciting oppertunities. Thats what was ahead of him.
Kate Lariske Delvin - Freelance reporter.
She was riding her jetbike to the shops, high over Borealis.
Warning lights flickered into life on the dashboard as the engine died and the backup failed to kick in. In the space of mili seconds the jetbike lost all of its ability to keep half a ton of metal in the air and it began plummeting towards the ground.
One thought bitterly crossed her mind as she plummeted to her certain death.
"I should never have written that article. What was I think.."
The jetbike collided into the concrete rooftop just above fairtrade, exploding in a large fireball.
OOC:
Thankyou all for the enjoyable memories and all the fun times. Its taken a long time coming but I'm leaving Rubi-Ka for good, even though it hurts to say it.
I really dont think i can say thankyou enough, I learned alot and many of you have been incredibly patient with me.
Thankyou's to;
ARK for the really good and immersive events you've run over the years and continued with, special shout out to Devdas, Pheats and Ninanna who i think i had the most interaction with.
Eeod, Dabblez and the rest of RuR for the crazy shannanigans which always brightened up the day.
Third Faction and everyone in it, past and present.
Gunfytr and Ciy for the often beer spluttering funniness of your posts. I really did enjoy them.
Omni-Pol for....well, whatever it is you do..
Goodluck Kintaii in trying to please them all with further plots and conspiracy. Confuse them, then nick their stuff whilst theyre not looking!
on a further note my account is still active for some time and ive given it over to a friend (Jermiaa) to use as he see's fit.
Oh cheers Agrestus as well.
Long live the Neutrals! Free Borealis!
Originally Posted by Lasliana
Gonna miss seeing ya around here Las 
