A Life at War: Twilight Prologue

You, know I should have guessed my luck would run out eventually. I an, I know it sounds cliché, but I ought to have guessed things were going too swimmingly. One may rightfully ask, hey Thrakan, what the hell do you an? Well I’ll tell you. I just died. I was happily minding my own business when suddenly I tripped, fell down so stairs and managed to snap my neck. So, my na is now Thrakan Dericote and I am a nineteen year old stuck in the body of an infant.

First things first, I’m having trouble rembering who I used to be. I rember broad strokes, but certain specifics are lost. I rember it was the year 2023, I rember being nineteen living in Germany, speaking the language, but I don’t think I was from there. I don’t rember any nas, I don’t rember any achievents I may have had. All I rember is my age a language and a bunch of historical events. Weirdly all of them appear to be about revolutions. I rember the Slave revolts of Ro, the peasant uprisings during the reformation. Though all I rember about the reformation was it being a religious dispute.

I rember the Glorious revolution and the English Civil War. I rember the Arican Revolution and the French Revolution. I rember the Haitian Revolution and the many Polish revolts. I rember the rebellions throughout Europe and the resistance against the Nazi regi. I rember them all and a couple more.

It seems weird to rember such political and military history, alongside random bits and pieces of culture, but not my na, or my mom’s smile. It’s weird that I rember my second language, but not my first. This whole thing is just … weird.

Now as I’ve said, I’m stuck here a baby in so sci-fi world. I can’t read the letters, I can’t understand anyone, and my nanny is a robot. Now, don’t get wrong this weird trash can on two stilts with it’s truncated cone for a head and single ‘eye’ is quite endearing and much more attentive than either of my parents. That doesn’t an I have to like it though. My old man, whenever I see him is talking to so tiny blue smudge of a hologram and whenever I see my mother she looks … tired.

Now you may assu that this is because she is caring for an infant, however you would be mistaken. My dearest nanny bot, or as I later learned R4-K3, is doing most of that. Mother seems to work late into the night and doesn’t seem to sleep much the rest of the ti either.

Thus my status quo began. Let tell you being a baby is kinda boring. The most entertainnt I ever got was when my dearest nanny bot whistled so kind of language maybe, or when she, in her infinite rcy, decided to play so music. Though at least I was given a bunch of holo-books to read. They were pretty simple, but I think I started to understand them after a while.

This continued for about half a year. I am uncertain how I had managed to remain sane, but sohow I managed. After that ti though I started to understand a couple of words and whistles, as well as how to crawl. Now this was apparently nothing worth noticing for my parents. Dear god, I think they will probably ignore until I leave the house at this rate. How they managed to have with all the work they do is beyond .

Finally, fucking finally, they notice . What did it take you ask? Was it saying ma’ or pa’ in this brand spanking new language? Nope. Was it taking my first steps? Also nope, did that at eight months, keep up people. Ah, you shout, you hurt yourself. No, sorry to disappoint. Now stop guessing. It was by looking over so random paperwork. Let say, at about a year old, I had finally started figuring out the language and its alphabet. I could kinda read now. So I started reading whatever I could find. Mostly ‘paperwork’ mother brought ho. I say paperwork, but it was all on her tablet. This is how I learned the na of the place my mom worked at. The Ministerial Office of Fondor. How did I read this at a asly one year old? Well boredom is a powerful tool, and my little brain has been soaking up knowledge like a dry sponge.

Now, how does this have anything to do with my parental units finally giving so attention? Well I started drawing on it with the stylus of the tablet. Apparently this finally caught my Mother’s attention as when she saw doodling on her official docunt she freaked out and started yamring on and on about sothing or another. I could maybe understand every sixth word due to a mix of big words and her panic.

But hey, now both mother and father, whose nas I learned were Owen and Naomi respectively, paid attention to more often. This may not be a good lesson to learn normally, but damn it I’m already twenty years old now, this shouldn’t affect !

Things didn’t really change much to be honest after that. Mother was still always tired, father was still always busy. Ti finally started to fly a bit once I stopped being a toddler. I got to go to school, which was alright. I mainly enjoyed learning History. It was just so different from old Earth. So alien and fantastical. Space monks leading wars and fighting against evil space monks, tyrants warlords and cultists. I even learned that apparently Fondor used to be green and lush instead of a dustball mixed with industrial cities.

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As I grew up I also learned about my family. So ma’ was First Secretary to the First Minister, who is basically the head honcho of the entire world, and father is a desk jockey in the Fondorian Planetary Defense Force. This explained quite a bit to . Why mother was always tired or why dad seed to be in endless conference calls with his superiors and inferiors. However at the sa ti pa’ was the descendant of so kind of ex-aristocracy. Not to say Fondor wasn’t ruled by an oligarchy, it was. Just that pa’s family, alongside so nine thousand others, had been thrown out of governnt due to so political shenanigans. Could’ve been worse I suppose. We were alive at least, that couldn’t be said for so two thousand other old families. I feel kinda sorry for them, bad luck’s a real bitch.

All in all though, it didn’t really matter to . Life changed, I actually got to know my parents, their work loads decreased sowhat and we actually spent ti as a family every now and again. After a year or two of school I finally realized it. My parents were kinda important to . After a while I started dreaming of my future. I thought I might go to Uni, get a degree in history and write papers on how stupid the Rusaan Reformations were, maybe adopt a kid or two later on for propriety’s sake and live my life as a scholar. I finally told my pa’ about that plan when I was fifteen. I figured he’d be happy for , but my dreams were shattered when my father inford I would join the Fondorian Planetary Defense Force and be happy about it.

Now, despite his request, I wasn’t happy about this. I didn’t want to be so grunt dying to a pirate raid, or so schmuck who gets do do Janitorial duty on so defense station. So in my infinite wisdom, I started rebelling. First it was getting into fights with bullies at school again. I had dropped the habit a couple years back to focus on my studies, but now it ca back with a vengeance.

However father comnded on my fighting spirit instead of admonishing . Even started teaching so old family traditions that I would need to know when I ended up succeeding him as head of the greater family. Then I started smoking and drinking whatever I could get my hands on. It certainly wasn’t healthy, but I got to et my brother in all but na during that ti. I eventually even decided to quit smoking after he, his girlfriend and another friend of mine kept complaining about it. I wish Charley would nag about sothing again … I miss the bastard.

This turn of events went fine until at seventeen I got black out drunk and my pa’ found in a puddle of my own sick out on the street, just before a sandstorm. My pa’ personally went to every bar, store and neighbor and told them, with standing next to him, that if I was even seen near the alcohol they were to get out of there no matter what.

After that I finally accepted my lot in life. Good thing too, because on my eighteenth birthday in the year 7947 C.R.C. I enlisted into the Fondorian Naval Academy.

The Naval Academy was quite fun in hindsight. Lots of exercise, stupid levels of discipline and a nice bit of education to top it all off. My family managed to get into the officer corps through the Academy and I could still have a mastery in History at the end of it too. I guess pa’ was right in the end, not that I would ever admit it.

So my family connections got into the officer corps, which ant even more discipline and so extra lessons. Mostly on commanding troops, naval tactics, logistics and anti-pirate operations. This was of course mixed with the standard naval arms and basic navigation training. I was still slightly isolationist in getting friends and the only people I really spent ti with were my professors and my trio of almost family. That was until my second year at the academy.

So it was my second year and I got introduced to Luis Sicato. Now he was a pretty shy fellow. He apparently thought the Fondorian Planetary Defense Force would be a good career choice and through a nice level of intelligence he managed to get into the officer corps as well. We quickly hit it off at a party we were both were peer pressured into and stayed in contact after that. I told him I was thinking of getting a doctorate in History while continuing the naval tradition by going to the Carida Judicial Officer Academy. He told he was thinking of joining the Republic Judiciary corps too, though without getting a doctorate. That was entirely understandable, it would be a lot of work.

We shared a couple classes in my final year at the Fondorian Naval Academy, because I had put so classes off until my fifth sester. I got to see a bit more of him there and learned he was the perfect example of a silent workhorse. Diligent, hard working and happy with results, no matter who gets the credit. We decided to keep in touch.

I sohow convinced my ma’ to let continue my naval education. My pa’ was all too happy to see actually have so motivation for my career and supported my decision to apply to the Republic’s Carida Judicial Officer Academy. It still took about a month until my mother permitted it. During the lull I had been following the news on and off and was slightly concerned about the rising tensions between Core and Rim. I blew it off. These tensions ca and went like clockwork. A decade of increased tariffs here, a year of reconciliation there. They would all get over themselves soon enough, after all the Core needed the Outer Rim as much as they needed the Core.

I wasn’t exactly happy with the Republic, the corruption was kinda obvious at my level. I rember father complaining again and again about attempted bribery and mother being happy no one was subverting the First Minister of Fondor for once a year or two ago, but I still believed it could be reford into sothing better. With so of my pre-rebirth knowledge I had so ideas on how it could be reford. However to get that far I had to first get out of the shadow of my parents. The best way I saw at the mont was to get into the Judiciary Corps and get enough support from them and my parents to join the senate or climb up the Judicial ranks and so begin expending political favors to try and make the Republic a better place. Ma’ had offered an alternative path involving a stint in the defense force, followed by joining her at the office, but I was set in my own plan.

Either way, a jump into politics was far off, probably over three decades into the future. I graduated from Fondor with a good score and a history mastery. I imdiately applied to the Carida Judicial Officer Academy and was accepted on a history scholarship. I was overjoyed.

I’ll be honest, Carida flew by . Don’t get wrong it was very interesting to learn about further fleet tactics and to get my History doctorate, but a lot of the lectures were very boring and focused on regulations or repeating things I had already learned on Fondor. So those three years flew by. It felt like one mont I was happily getting on a transport to the academy and the next I was graduating.

My parents were very proud. It felt nice that they were actually happy with . I think that they finally truly realized they had an actual son by this stage instead of so kind of burden. It was quite late, but I was still happy about it. They even officially gifted R4-K3, my old nanny bot, as a graduation gift. I was over the moon.

During the Graduation ceremony of class 7955 C.R.C. I was officially given my first assignnt and my commission. Jr. Captain of a Light Assault Cruiser. Now despite the na the ship was essentially a glorified corvette and personnel transport. However I was still very happy about being given command over my own ship. I was even allowed to bring R4 with .

At the end of my first twenty six years of life I was finally free of my parents and could see the greater galaxy. I had a good feeling about this.