Jonny D Buelle
Mors Effera
176
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Posted - 2014.06.18 12:18:00 -
[1] - Quote
After seeing countless battles and slaughtering hundreds of men and dying a thousand deaths, I thought I would take some time to look back and reflect on how I reached this point. How did I reach the point where I would kill hundreds for a handle of ISK.
I guess I should go back to where this all started...
I grew up without ever meeting my father. My mother was a soldier for the Gallente Federation and was away from home fighting for what she believed in. I only really saw her when she had shore leave. Unfortunately she did not go through the cloning process. I found out when her Sergeant came and told me the news. Killed by Serpentis.
On the day that my mother died, I decided I would serve in the Federation and kill those responsible. I joined the Federal Marines the first chance I had. I was only a kid then.
After a few years with the marines, I was done with the war, and just wanted to go homeThat's when I met a Matari named Jack O'Reilly.
Jack was a brilliant medic who disliked killing. He was trying to hire anyone for his mate's mining crew. They were even hiring non-clones to work for them. I had nothing better in mind so I signed my discharge form and went off to mine.
While mining, I met a girl. She was a Matari. She would always bring us food while we worked. After a few weeks we started dating and a year later we eloped. She was beautiful, and I loved her.
While mining one day, I received a call from her. She was at home with the kids. She said mining wasn't paying the bills anymore. So I told her that maybe I could reenlist, join the Federal Marines again. She told me she didn't want to lose me. I asked her about the cloning process, so that I would stay alive.
She said she would leave me. I didn't believe her.
A few months later I became a clone. And not one of those fancy capsuleer clones, but a Duster. I started to fight for the Marines again, but this time they paid me as a merc. The ISK started flowing, but it wasn't enough. I needed more for my family. That's when I started to fight for more generous factions. However I never fought against the Federation.
When I got home one day, my wife and kids were gone. She went home and took back her maiden name, Adtur. And last I heard, my son has become a clone too. But he prefers space over the ground.
After they left, I started visiting any pub closest to where I was fighting. The drink seemed to dull the pain. However this started to eat into my funds, and I couldn't afford any decent dropsuits. So I started to fight for even more generous people. Soon after I was numb to the mindless killing.
I never stopped. But after countless battles I no longer saw a cause in anything but ISK and booze. I saw how pointless it all was. But I still fight. I need to pay the bills and I'm too far gone to do anything else. I will still fight for the Federation if it calls for it.
Time to get another drink.
Legionhares Unite!
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Nrabatar Zorig
Nos Nothi
93
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Posted - 2014.06.18 12:39:00 -
[2] - Quote
I would say that this is a good start for a story piece, but there are a few inconsistencies there with the existing lore. First is scale of time and second is payouts.
The scale of time is one many often fail to grasp, particularly how short it actually is on how long clone soldiers have been around. In reality, clone soldiers have been existing for three years at best, and the very early ones were only Templars. Realistically, a clone like Jack O'Reilly or Jonny D Buelle(or his mother) could have only existed for a year, maybe two if you're a really early adopter from this point. Sure, general cloning tech existed long before dusters, but the sleeper implant tech which is implied in your story has only been around for a few years.
The second is payouts. Pretty much any average duster can make 100-300k ISK per contract, which is nowhere near the amounts a capsuleer can make. However, all planets and empires have their own currencies, and compared to those, 300 000 ISK is suddenly a huge amount. There was a news article way back that interviewed a crewmember of a capsuleer ship that survived through an entire tournament, he described that his 250k ISK cut was enough to put this crewmember's parents into a nice house, pay college to multiple relatives and still have enough to retire comfortably himself.
With that taken into account, a semi-decent payout from a single duster contract would be enough to live comfortably for the rest of your life pretty much. Unless Jonny's family were megaspenders and wasted all kinds of money on duster and capsuleer equipment, having to take broader and broader contracts for more money just doesn't make sense.
But besides those, your story has a good start.
Shaman Zorig of the Vherokior Tribe
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