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Sapperps - The True Story Of A Sabine Progen Explorer


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[center][b]SapperPS – The True Story of a Progen Sabine Explorer[/b][/center]

[center][b][u]Chapter 1: From a Martian to a Librorum Trainee[/u][/b][/center]

Philomela had dreamed of this day for years. Growing up on Phobos, home to many soldiers of the Privateer branch of the Progen military, Philo (as known to family and friends) was ready to enlist. Having been raised in a family of builders and manufacturers, Philo was determined to be one of the finest of the Trader class in the military. Her primary interest was in shield building. Having combat in her blood also, she was extremely eager to get behind the guns and destroy any of the wild biological creatures who dared stand in her way. First, it had to be determined whether she was fit for military duty. However, while going through the processes of her physical, she could only think about that gigantic hold and her special cargo vault….all of the wonderful things she would collect and analyze. Though there was one part of her basic processing which took her by surprise. The test. Apparently, besides building shields, she had to get down to the gritty mess of reactors, weapons, and components along with her shields. Each category had basic knowledge which must be applied to her training. Philo got extremely uncomfortable with many of the questions. Out of 20, she knew only a handful. When she got her exam back, her worst fear was evident…..Philo was not cut out to be a Privateer.

Going home, she couldn’t think about much other than maybe studying her way back in. But along with most Progen beliefs, they are created for perfection from birth. Therefore after being rejected once, she could not go back to the Privateers to seek enlistment again. Philo was on her own in her hometown. She lived not far from her parents, whom she sought advice from. Her parents noticed Philo was distraught about the rejection. Her father was a Warrior for eight years, doing just enough time to gain benefits to allow him to raise a family. Having come from a rough upbringing, Philo’s father wanted to ensure that his family would not live the same life he once did. After the gate wars, the Progens went into a major economic depression. Philo’s father, having grown up during the depression, enlisted in the Warrior’s Corps. Having made it to the rank of Praefect (a low-ranking non-commissioned officer), he had led many battles against the terrible Chavez pirates. His stories fascinated Philo, but his business after his service was what Philo was most interested in. Philo grew up with friends who were mechanically inclined. She had to play the “fit in” game most of her school years. However, she felt that she was a bit different. She loved building up her motorship, but other things fascinated her. Shields were her calling, and she knew it. She reluctantly went to the Sentinel’s recruiting office. Not expecting much good to come out of it, she went through the basic testing. Philo discovered she had an acute knack for geology and navigation. Along with this, her shield fascination matched perfectly for the Sabine faction.

She shipped out from Phobos to her basic training site, known as Mars Beta. This is where she met Tovar Maxe. Tovar seemed to have it out for Philo. Whatever the case, the first mission was a sign of things to come. Philo was to find debris in the nearby hulk field. Having spent time checking and testing her equipment and reading the manuals before reporting to Tovar, Philo was familiar with how the ship’s basic equipment worked. She not only prospected the debris, but also found some useful items hidden in the wrecks: a couple of Prototype Plasma beams that were compatible with her reactor. Philo didn’t want to use faulty equipment, so she tested the beams out on a biological mob (hostile). She found a bubble-like creature called manes and made quick short work of this creature, and gathered up the manes essence that was left behind and also found a gene-map of a Progen. Upon returning to Tovar, Philo reported her findings. Tovar was astonished to see how fast she caught on to things. This is when Philo received her tag. Tovar referred to her as a natural-born sapper after that initial performance. A sapper is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties such as prospecting, refining, genetics, defenses and rescue missions, as well as road and airfield construction and repair. They are also trained to serve as warrior support in defensive and offensive operations. A sapper's duties are devoted to tasks involving facilitating movement of allied forces and impeding those of enemies. He continued to refer to Philo as Sapper throughout the remainder of basic training.
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Chapter 2: Just A Step in the Process

 

           After learning basic prospecting techniques, Sapper practiced and aced the final test for mining. She noticed that each asteroid and gas cloud had certain properties which could allow her to identify the contents. Next, a Sentinel by the name of Fet Rastian instructed Sapper to find copper ore: A simple, boring mission. Tovar then instructed Sapper in some basic combat. After his first lesson, Tovar received a distress signal. One of the trainees had been blown up by a manes. Not to be alarmed, he knew Sapper had recently finished one off with no sweat. He immediately ordered Sapper out to Nav Brightside 4. Upon her arrival, she found the ship, off in the distance.  As she approached the downed ship, she saw the manes clouds sitting there watching the ship, ready to kill any sign of life. They spotted her and began to attack. They emitted some weird light beam that depleted her shields. Sapper primed her beams and fired at the manes. Both were gon in a matter of seconds. Sapper then towed the derelict ship back to Arx Prima. The pilot was still alive and had no injuries.

 

           After receiving commendation from Tovar, it was time to learn and master the weapon of choice for the entire Progen race: the projectile. Minda, the Sentinel’s projectile instructor, heard of Sapper’s actions, but was not impressed. Upon arrival, Sapper got an earful. “So, you saved a fellow trainee… with a beam. You destroyed two manes by yourself… with a beam… and you call yourself a Progen?” Sapper was hinting that this person was obviously concrete-minded and brainwashed, so she went along with Minda and took it for what it was; an obvious jealousy vent. ‘I mean really,’ thought Sapper, ‘why the hell is this Centurion stuck in a training facility? Probably got into some trouble and just hates the punishment.’ Nonetheless, this Centurion earned her rank and rank had to be respected in training.

 

After Minda’s little rant, she instructed Sapper on the use and operation of the Exorcist, Minda’s very own weapon creation. Minda hardly seemed the crafty type, but she had actually gotten the weapon patented and the Progen officially used it as their training weapon. ‘Not a bad way to make some money’ thought Sapper. As a projectile user, one must face their enemies. As a Sentinel, however, one must never sit still. Moving towards one’s enemy will inflict more damage per second. Sapper found out from Minda that much more would be learned on the way as she grew into her profession.  After the basic projectile training, it was time to go into a “live” setting and destroy a few devil spawns. Anxious with excitement, Sapper flew out to the Psionic nav where Devil Spawns and Dish Devils lurked. Remembering the rant, Sapper had installed Minda’s Exorcist on her ship prior to leaving the station. Upon her arrival to the nav, she immediately installed the prototype beams. After targeting the first devil spawn she would kill, she set her thrusters and sped toward her first victim. The beam blazed when she got in range and within 5 seconds, the devil spawn exploded into a fireball of glory. After killing 4 more, Sapper reported back to Minda. “Wow… Projectiles are way better. These beams are nowhere near as fun,” Sapper said, to which Minda replied “Right? Now go forth! Never use those dreaded beams again.”

 

           Fet Rastian had another mission for Sapper. This mission was to assist with training her how to use a built-in ship device called a repulsor field. This field reflected a portion of incoming damage back to the attacker. Fet was helping Sapper get this before leaving basic training because he could see what a special trainee they had on their hands. Fet knew Sapper was destined for greatness in the Sabine history. All it took was 13 units of magnetite ore. Sapper immediately went out and got the necessary ore for this, and was given the implant for this powerful technology.

 

           It was now time to get into the not-so-fun explorer duties. Reclaimer Orgus instructed Sapper to find a diridium crystal. That was all. No instructions as to where one could be located, just find one. Knowing that asking too many questions may get a response which would not be pleasant, Sapper headed out on a journey to find the crystal. After searching the Mars Beta training grounds thoroughly and finding a crystalline asteroid field, but no diridium crystal, Sapper went through the system gate to Lagarto. Searching through this sector, Sapper became discouraged. She came up to two gates which she knew nothing of what lied beyond. Knowing Progen space, Sapper went into Endriago on her quest for the diridium crystal.

 

            After mapping the navs of Endriago, Sapper recalled coming across transmissions of activity behind the planet. Curious, she headed back there and ran into Rogue Progens, who swiftly began attacking her. ‘Great,’ Sapper thought, ‘Another entire sector mapped, my life put on the line, and still no diridium crystal.’ Sapper flew to Arx Spartoi to rest. . The station was buzzing with business and jobs being performed. She had been out for a week, looking for this crystal. ‘It is weird that this crystal is so hard to find. Orgus ordered me to do this as if he ordered every trainee to do this. It shouldn’t be this hard.’ After a night of rest, Sapper was out again on the hunt. Sapper decided to go deeper into Progen space and travelled into the Vega System via a gate to Primus. Upon her arrival in Primus, she saw endless crystal fields as far as her eyes could see. A good portion of them had an interesting glow to them, something she had never seen before. Upon prospection of one of these crystal asteroids, she found a mysterious-looking crystal. ‘This must be it!’ she thought. After taking some raw topaz from the asteroid as well, she headed back to Arx Spartoi for another rest before heading back to Basic Training.

 

           Here, she met a Magister in the Sabine Republic. She sought guidance on what this crystal was. The man was puzzled. ‘I have never seen anything like this before… where did you find this?’ Sapper told him where she had found this in Primus, explaining that it was all over the place. ‘I have heard recent rumors of this diridium crystal, about how someone had spotted it in a peculiar asteroid. I don’t think anybody has really seen one.” Confused, Sapper thanked the Magister while he prepped his ship to explore these fields.  She quickly headed back to Arx Prima ignoring her slight sleep deprivation. She had been gone two weeks. She presented the mysterious crystal to Fet. Fet seems astounded for a minute, asked Sapper where the crystal was when she had found it. Sapper had the idea that they didn’t expect her to come back anytime soon. The training facility decided it was time for Sapper to move on from Basic Training. She was like no other recruit they had ever dealt with.

 

           Sapper then went back to Tovar for her next mission. She was sent to spy on Red Dragon pirates with a special device built into her ship known as Power Down. This creates an illusion that the ship is incapacitated, all power shuts off and the ship remains stealthy. After practicing, Sapper headed out to the site where Red Dragons had been spotted. After receiving word that they were approaching, she engaged her Power Down and waited. Not knowing whether it would work or not, Sapper became a little excited. She spotted the Red Dragon and came out of Power Down and blasted the ship. After reporting back to Tovar, Sapper found out that she was finished with Basic Training.

 

           She was ready to get on with her military career. Having been told that before graduation from Basic that she would have a promotion ceremony, she dressed in her best uniform. The rank of Inceptor has no insignia, so her Librorum rank was pinned on her chest. Not wasting any time, she began the remainder of her arduous journey by having her Ship upgraded and all of her basic training gear replaced with better issued material (stuff from vendors). Heading out into the depths of the universe all by herself, Sapper was ready to meet people, learn from them, and write her own story and create her own logic. Life as she knew it would change forever.

 

            Having been fresh out of basic, Sapper figured “what better way to get started than to know where everything is!” So, Sapper joined a few tour groups to learn about sectors and locations. Her ship’s computers kept track of all activity that occurred. Every bullet fired, every transaction, every nav point discovered, and every prospected item was tracked and accounted for. This highly evolved computer system authorized use of higher grade equipment and further ship upgrades. Sapper first went on a tour of the Jenquai space. The tour leader was reluctant to grant the request of Antares, but got everybody through without a scratch. Through this, Sapper discovered where the Kitara’s Veil trader was, who sold unique equipment not found anywhere else. Also she saw the mysterious Voltoi and infuriated Mordana. After the two-week tour, Sapper rested up and upgraded equipment.

 

            After upgrading her shields and devices, Sapper decided to tour once more. This time, Sapper went out with a group to the depths of the Aragoth System. One of the largest solar systems in the universe, Aragoth held many riches and mysterious gateways. Through the Aragoth tour, Sapper touched up on Alpha Centauri, Proxima Centauri, and the Pirate system known as Smuggler’s Run. Much was known about Smuggler’s Run, but one had to be on the Red Dragons’ good side to enter their world. After a two-month tour and learning much about the far reaches of Aragoth, Sapper discovered she was in line for another hull upgrade. During her tour, she discovered an interesting trend which would later prove useful in predicting when she was able to equip certain items and gain her upgrades. After doing the math, she finally tracked her progress on her own and could now plan in advance. Her exploring was not over yet. For now, she had to report to Ioanna J. Deinon for her training mission.

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