Weekend in Veliaze.
This happened along time ago. Spring of 3261,
I believe, my first campaign. This was a search and destroy type thing,
as several wanted criminals in the Empire sought refuge there. Also,
HQ tought we might scare the shit out of the Feds. We did. Anyways,
I was in 25th Heavy Assault Squadron back then. We were attached to
"Teela Brown", a heavy battlecruiser with escort and planetary
defence "neutralisation" as our primary duties. We were using
the standard Mk 1 Courier with Navy's 20 MWatter. Since New Africa had
nothing in the way of anti-orbital defences, we were tasked with providing
cover for the "Teela Brown". Some of the locals were eager
to put a few holes in her, we were told.
Anyways, the Osprey guys and some Courier fellas from the Attack
squadrons wiped them out way out of our range, none managed to get within
2 AU's of "Teela". So it was just a nice ride along with the
battlecruiser to New Africa.
Arriving there, we pulled two weeks of perimeter guard in high
orbit around New Africa while the marines were pacifying the rock. Since
people hyperspacing in Veliaze would've been detected LONG before coming
close enough to us to present any real danger, our main purpose was
to prevent anything from leaving New Africa. Nobody seemed to try that,
though.
After two weeks we were told to make planetfall to resupply and
give over the ships to the next shift. We would be free to roam around
New Africa for the following two weeks on R&R.
Needless to say, the planetary folks were none too happy to see
us Imperial types swarming around and often grenades and stuff were
getting thrown in venues packed with Imps. Rather than taking chances,
I "liberated" a vehicle and headed for the ocean. For those
of you that don't know, New Africa's "eastern" hemisphere
is water. I spent a week bodysurfing the ten meter waves breaking on
the reef, after which having got in touch with Mother Nature long enough,
I went back to the camps. Another week passed by, while I was being
entertained by the local female population, VERY friendly people. When
word was passed that we were to pack up and leave, I had a lovely suntan,
a full week of sex and tender lovin' and 2500 extra credits, combat
pay. As we were preparing to hyperspace out of Veliaze on our way to
Facece I was relaxing in a soft bed in the infirmary on "Teela
Brown" having caught something from my New African lady friends,
thinking that life in the Imperial Navy is just like they say on the
recruiting poster: "meet new people, see new places". Promotions
and decorations were raining on us for having achieved our goals 100%
and I tought life was great. Young and foolish, I guess that's what
I was. But I wouldn't find that out until much, much later on Biggs.