Nazz's Kool Kidz Klub Application 3, It's Time To Stop

   The child cried as she came forth from the womb of a dying mother suffering from postpartum bleeding. The chaos in the labor room was prevalent and the doctors were under-equipped to properly treat her. As a result, they took the child into the next room as the woman on the bed had started going into cardiac arrest. Her organs began to fail slowly, but surely. The woman’s fate seemed to be sealed as a result of her Coagulopathy. Within the hour, her heart had stopped and from that point forward, the nameless infant was destined to proceed through the hardships of life without a mother’s comfort.

   Outside in the waiting room, the father was taken to the nursing ward in order to receive his child, along with the news about his wife. The couple had been married for six years. The woman, a clerk at a grocery store. The man worked as a construction worker for the Alliance, often away on long-term contracts with the company he was employed for. In order to take care of his daughter, the man would be forced to find new employment, one that would allocate him enough time to be there to raise his child alone.

   Saige, he’d named her. With a North-American ancestry, the name did it's job depicting the infant's ethnic origin, it was a name that the man had found as beautiful as the infant he took home from the hospital that day. The death of his wife had left him sullen and detached from the routines that were considered normal for him. Though he was given a new purpose, and this purpose had a name; Saige Shields.

    “I’ll take care of you,” were the first words that he spoke to the child he’d promised himself he would love for as long as he lived.

“-- But I don’t want to go!” the four-year old fussed with her father as he ushered her out the front door of their apartment building. He took her hand and the two proceeded down the sidewalk beside one-another.

   “Your education is important, sweetheart. At your age, I can understand the world being large and frightening, but one day you’ll come to understand why we must all go to school,” her father said matter-of-factly. He often had that kind of demeanor to him, the child figured. The man who knew all of the answers to all of her questions, the man who could take on anything in the world. Who could reach for the top shelf and even open glass jars. In the young girl’s eyes, her father was practically a super-hero. How could one person know so many things, have -seen- so many things, Saige wondered.

   She wasn’t quite sure what he father did. He’d tried to explain it to her, but it only sounded like a lot of words she didn’t quite understand. Being four and having the attention-span of a goldfish, the young girl never did quite dwell on the thought. She knew that they went to the same school, though while she was beginning to learn how to read and carried around books, her father often carried around a mop and bucket and would occasionally see her in the halls.

   School was a place that at her age, Saige did not like to go to. It was a place where grownups taught them boring things and where the children were mean to her because their parents spoke quietly about her father and ‘what he did for a living’. The terminology didn’t make sense to the toddler at the time, which lead to only more confusion in regards to the reasoning behind it. Though with that ever-present goldfish attention-span, these spurts of downtrodden emotions only lasted a short while before she found herself becoming infatuated with yet another new ‘thing’.

   Saige and her father climbed onto the bus after a good few minutes of walking and were on their way to another day of school.

   Saige brought up a hand to shield her face from the sudden turning on of the lights as several dozen people had yelled, “Surprise!” after she walked into the room. She was startled, but only for a few moments before an overwhelming sense of joy filled the child’s chest as she stared at the sparkling birthday cake in wonder. She was in double digits now, baby. It was time that people started to treat her like an adult. Or so she figured, at any rate. Though at the same time, she’d also decreed that there was, “No way in heck I’m too old for presents!” This seemed to be a recurring thing for Saige. In her youth, she’d always typically been a proud child with a high sense of self-worth which bordered on entitlement.

    Her father often spoiled her, which lead her to believe that there were many things that she deserved to have, most of which being novelties as opposed to bare necessities. Home life had always been sort of a drag. As she’d grown older, she began to understand that you needed credits to buy things. She’d also come to understand that her father made a very minute amount of credits, and that he spent most of them on her. What she didn’t come to understand was that the man had deprived himself of most novelties in life in exchange for his daughter’s happiness.

    Her ability to read and write came into fruition by that time and so did the Alliance propaganda boasting about the Navy. Space had always fascinated Saige, and so she admired the ‘cool looking men and women’ who worked on the space ships. Her father told her to be careful, however. He’d always gone on about how it was dangerous and that there would be better opportunities for her if she were to finish her education.

   The window to her room of the flat opened with a loud creak. The adolescent threw her bag from the window and then proceeded to hop over the cill. After turning to shut it again, Roger showed himself from behind the bushes in her front yard. Roger Shields was her second cousin who lived a couple of blocks away from her. Having been in Armstrong for the past fifteen years of her life lead her to develop a particularly close relationship with him. In those recent years however, she’d also begun to find herself growing bolder and a little more rebellious with each passing month.

   “Finally,” he said.

   “Quiet your ass down -- my father is still awake,” Saige cautioned.

   Roger was a year older than she was. The two had grown bored of the biodome that they’d lived in and were looking for adventures to be had, an opportunity to leave behind the life they knew in an attempt to start an adult life on their own. At least, that was the idea. The reality of it all however, was that the cousins were quite literally two brash adolescents who were running away from home in hopes that the world would be easier than it actually was.

   Their plan was to leave Armstrong and make their way to Earth where they would enlist with the Alliance Navy in an attempt to get off-world as soon as humanly possible. Would her father be furious? He sure as hell would be, when he found the note she left him. Did she care? Not in the goddamn slightest. Saige looked at this as an opportunity to pursue the desires that she had since she was a child, to join the Navy and travel the stars on a ship.

   The two boarded the first bus headed in the direction of the spaceport and settled themselves in a seat. Roger turned to her and lifted his brows as he asked, “He’s not going to be happy, is he?”

   “Absolutely furious,” Saige affirmed with a cheeky grin on her face.

   “I’d be careful about how confident you are about his disappointment, Saige. What if you never see him again? What then?” Roger asked as he narrowed his eyes.

   She hadn’t thought about that. In her brash, not-so-thought-out flight of fancy she came to realize that this could be the last time she ever saw her family, her home -- and even her moon. No one could be quite certain where her endeavors would take her in her attempt to reach for those stars that shined so bright.

    Standing on pad twelve stood a cadet in her late adolesence who seemed to be off in her own world. Sheltered from reality and off in her own thoughts, Saige Shields found herself paying little attention to the pep-talk that was being given to her by her instructor, Mort Harper. The sounds of several cruisers taking off filled the air in the vicinity of the flight deck. Several cadets in the graduating class of the year 2118 AD were lined up outside with their instructors, waiting to board their ships in order to partake in their first real flights.

    “... And today is the day that you’ll fly for the first time, Shields!” is all that Saige felt herself hearing as she zoned back in, having had her head in the clouds moments prior. The young cadet stood proudly - she had good reason to. Today she would be partaking in first real flight. After having been doing simulations for the past several months of her training, Saige felt that she was finally ready to get into the real deal. She found herself breaking posture and smirking at the wall in front of her as she remained at attention. She found herself doing her best not to slouch. As a result of the situation she found herself in, her posture was rigid and stiff.

   “Are you listening to what I’m saying!? her instructor inquired, perhaps a little bit louder than need-be, causing Saige to jolt back into focus.

   Nodding a few times, Saige spoke, “Aye’ sir! I’m listening. Promise!”

    Instructor Harper looked her over and raised a brow, “Are you sure that you’re ready for this?” he mused, stepping closer in order to close the small gap that they had between them as he voiced his thoughts aloud, “Are you feeling alright? You’re pale as a ghost..” His voice trailed off somewhat, as he found himself narrowing his eyes a little bit as he studied her expression.

     Saige rolled her shoulders, and then straightened her back in order to re-adjust her posture as she retorted, “I’m feeling okay, sir. I’m just feeling a tad apprehensive. It’s my first flight, after-all.”

    Harper nodded twice before placing a hand on his pupil’s shoulder, “You’ve been prepping for this for two years running, Saige. Don’t let me down.” Saige gave him a nod of reassurance; saying nothing despite the heat of her face and the building pressure within her chest due to the nervousness that she felt.

    When the time came, she stepped over towards the cockpit of her ship. The ship itself was smaller than she had originally expected, but it was a ship none the less so she couldn't really complain. She could tell by the look of it that this training vessel was likely used to transport small cargo before becoming a practice vehicle for the Alliance Ace Academy. As she neared the boarding ladder Harper reached out and gave her, her flight helmet.

    Now seated in the cockpit, Saige strapped her helmet on. Flicking the buttons to disconnect the magnetic lock on the cockpit, it sealed with her inside of it. Concentrating on the layout of the cockpit, she missed the transmission that was sent through the headset built into the helmet. “... What?” she asked, before correcting herself, “Er - repeat, over.”

    “I said ‘piece of cake’, Shields. Just like the simulation,” spoke Harper’s gravelly tone through her headset.

    “Except I can crash and burn for real this time.” she thought.

    After taking several more moments to steel herself, the cadet flicked another switch to disable the lock holding her vessel in place. The cacophony of the many thrusters was heard as she felt her vessel lift up off of the ground. Pulling back on her flight stick, she angled upward and began to lift off. She reached up under her visor in order to wipe a few beads of sweat from her forehead. The cadet eyed the flight HUD on her helmet’s visor once more, leveling out her pitch and ensuring that her airspace was clear. Still climbing altitude, she closed her eyes for a second, speaking aloud to herself. “You can do this.”

   Saige’s heart thudded hard inside her breast. She continued to climb in altitude until it was time to steady the craft out. The air was thin way up there in the sky, and so with a brief motion, Saige pulled the respirator up over her mouth and nose and did the clip on the side of her helmet to secure it in place. The sounds of her breaths resonated in her ears now that the breathing mask was secured over her face. Pushing forward on the flight stick, the young cadet leveled out her ship and then inclined the stick to the side in order to begin a routine turn as to not fly too far out into another area. The rays of the sun that revolved around Earth shone down, beating against the dark semi-polarized plasma glass that encased the cockpit.

    Looking around, it was duly noted that there was only one craft in the sky. Taking advantage of this, the cadet turned briskly in order to voraciously take advantage of the open airspace. With all communications silent for the time being, Saige felt it was time to do something that some could consider ‘ballsy’ from a cadet. It’d worked in the simulations, why wouldn’t it work for real? With the flick of the wrist, the stick was pitched on an angle, causing the aircraft to double over on itself and do a complete barrel roll. Boisterous laughter filled the comms as Saige cackled maniacally in delight. “I’m the queen of the world!” she exclaimed before her laughter came to a halt.

    Seeming partially reminiscent for a moment, she repeated the words again to herself, albeit lower this time around as if she’s suddenly hit a morose nerve. “Queen of the world..”

    Opening her eyes, she kept them narrowed as the sun glare flashed right into them. She wanted to adjust the glasses on her face, but doing so would result in her breaking posture, causing her to stand out from the cadets standing beside her in the line-up.

    “Harold Jeffries, aged twenty. Honors,” bellowed the voice of the Admiral over the loudspeaker that he spoke from up on the stage.  

    She looked over the crowd before watching her first classmate make his way up to the stage. It was a warmer day, but Saige fought the discomfort of the weather because today was her day.

    “Marian Malone. Aged twenty-two,” came the voice again.

    Saige watched out of the corner of her eye as several more went up, one at a time in order to receive their wings pinned to their collar. Clenching her fists as the boy to her left was called, her nervousness increased ten-fold. This meant that her name was to be called next.

    “Marcel Bigsby, aged eighteen. Honors.”

    She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. Marcel come back down and walk by the crowd after being dismissed. Those present waited for the next name to be called forward, and after what felt like several drawn out moments, it came.

    “Saige Shields, aged nineteen,” called the Admiral.

    With relatively mechanical-like motions, Saige made her way up to the stage to be greeted by the Admiral and his assistant. The assistant pinned her wings to her collar while the Admiral took her hand and shook it. He held the position for a few moments so that pictures could be taken, before sending her on her way like those before her.

    “New opportunities are going to be open to you.” she thought to herself, smiling towards the crowd as Harper’s words of encouragement from the night before bounced through her head.

    Logan held up Saige's discharge paperwork,"What do you mean you're quitting!?" her partner asked. The man who stood before her was the pilot of the Roman Blue, the now-furious pilot at that. Though he was technically Saige's superior -- and her better, he'd always treated her like an equal and let her fly as often as he was allowed.

    "Don't wanna' do it anymore," Saige said with a casual shrug of her shoulders as she continued to pack her bag. "My two years are up, Loge. Academy's done and paid for."

    "That's it, then? After all of the hard work you've put in, you're just going to leave?" he questioned, his demeanor changing to a more downtrodden one. He was visibly upset with the news.

    "Yeah," she said as if it were a no-brainer. "I wanna' make something of myself, man."

    "You're serious," he said, as if the reality of the situation were just-now beginning to sink in for him. As Saige stepped forward, Logan did the same thing and wrapped her in a hug. "I'm going to miss you," he said.

    "I know," was her only response. With that, she left the military behind as soon as they got to the Citadel.

    Having spent the past several years as a freelance pilot, Saige wound up returning to Earth just before the Reaper War broke out. Hailing the call-to-arms from the Alliance, the Flight Lieutenant was assigned to her old ship, the Roman-Blue. She spent the first three months of the war aboard before the ship was damaged beyond repair. In a last-ditch effort at self-preservation, Saige along with the rest of the crew went AWOL after attempting to proceed through one of the Charon Relay in order to keep from getting destroyed in one of the battles.

After going through the Charon Relay, the crew of the Roman-Blue drifted for several months in space, surviving off of what they had on the ship until they received word that the war was finally over. Upon her return, Saige was scolded along with the rest of her troupe. With potential imprisonment on-the-line, Saige decided to accept the alternative of partaking in a dangerous assignment with Taskforce Outlander aboard the SSV London.