My Version...
Sergeant-Major Illivia
She was heaving in deeps breaths; it was her body’s way of supporting the adrenaline rush she was feeling. It happened every time she needed to enforce the laws, Concord was around to keep peace, and Sergeant Illivia would have it no other way. Warping to the aggressor with all weapon systems locked (as was the standard operating procedure) all the while holding off her mental command to fire until warp scrambling was confirmed. Sergeant Illivia once again enforced the law, attacking a ship in empire space for anything other than self defense was a death sentence to your own ship that Concord was always ready to satisfy. It took 12 seconds from the infraction to the destruction of the Caldari cruiser. Watching the pod slowly align for warp to the nearest gate, a familiar thought ran through Illivia’s mind once again. It was a dream, no a nightmare she could never get out of her head.
“Hey darling, the holographic projector is flickering again” said a woman. “Well it’s probably that durned beta power diagnostic unit (PDU) again” said a gruff sounding man. “Daddy, please fix it, my favorite program is coming on”, said a very young Illivia. “Anoder swiff kick should get it goin again” her dad said. “Thank you Daddy”, was Illivia’s excited response. Her recollection of this event always started out this way, everything is ok… but it quickly goes wrong. Illivia’s dad had been kicking that PDU over and over for about 8 months now. He was not an engineer or a very good pilot… I mean, who had to be when all you needed these days were jump points. Everything was automated when it came to piloting a ship, even defense systems could be automated these days. So he never thought twice about kicking something he didn’t know how to fix, kicking the PDU fixed the problem most of the time and that was good enough for him.
Leg lifted and ready to kick, he said to himself “I gotta’ replace this PDU in the next station”, a phrase he had said each time he kicked the thing. WHAM! (nothing), WHAMM! (power surged various system interfaces), WWHAMMM! Lights started to flicker “that should do it” he said. Then all power went out, seconds later all systems rebooted. All systems were coming online, red warning lights and combat alarms began to go off. The power surge had damage the ships security identification scanners and everything was popping up as hostile on the scanners. The ship began to fire at all targets (thanks to automatic defense systems).
Concord ships began to show up and were added to the ships targeting list. The family was in the pod… they were safe. A large concentration of concord ships were still arriving to this outright violation of the law. Concord was here to do a job, the volleys began. Volley one – shields down, armor 23%, volley 2 – armor 93%, volley 3 – armor down, hull 52% (destruction imminent pod ready for deployment), volley 4 – hull 100% ship destroyed, POD in space, aggressor ship neutralized. Then another shot was fired… a missile from a previously targeted battleship. Though it was legal to defend yourself in empire space… most people did not fire on PODs. It was more like a courtesy; one this unfortunate family was not given. The missile screamed towards them and BAWOOOM! The POD was gone.
Illivia immediately awake in her clone for the first time. What had just happened? She had just been on the ship with her family and now she was here in a station. She looked around and so no one she knew, it was like she was in a graveyard, she was surrounded by unmoving clones. Though she did not understand it… where was she. Seconds later a robot entered to ensure the jumping process was successful. It analyzed Illivia’s brain waves and then a green light blinked and a door opened. She was cleared to leave. “But where are my parents” Illivia said. The robot pulled Illivia’s record from its database and said in a squeaky robot voice “Ship Destroyed, Pod Destroyed… contract 5A32EY1... female child clone information uplinked, female clone information unavailable, male clone information unavailable”. “What does that mean” Illivia said. “Parents Deceased” replied the squeaky robot voice. Illivia began to cry. She was adopted by a Concord pilot who heard the tragic story. Under his training she emerged as a fantastic pilot. She followed in his footsteps and not only joined Concord but quickly went up the enlisted ranks. Entering combat tournaments when she could, Illivia was as seasoned and decorated as a combat pilot could be.
Illivia’s Display blinked “standby for an important message”, showed up on her console. “The Concord headquarters station in Yulai has been destroyed.” Illivia gasped. The message continued “The CONCORD Assembly, has announced the immediate authorization of the "Emergency Militia War Powers Act". The War Powers provision of the CONCORD Charter authorizes the "immediate and unconditional formation of capsuleer militias among the nation-state members of the CONCORD Assembly for the purpose of waging uncontested war within the boundaries of Empire space." Illivia grinned… she loved combat. With her contract with Concord about to expire… this was a timely opportunity.
So Under the Emergency Militia War Powers Act, Illivia formed her own elite militia. Most of which were her own Concord subordinates.
