14 October 2977

DDG-381 Hannibal docked with Norfolk Naval station, in orbit around Liberty, Crockett System.

Sitting in her quarters staring at the comm screen, Evelyn mulls calling her father, Malcolm Shade, she hasn’t spoken to him in the last few months as the missions just kept coming in, reluctantly she opens the channel and calls him, after a minute she considers closing the connection when he answers “Shade residence, Malcolm speaking”

Evelyn replies “HI dad, sorry for not calling recently”

Malcolm says “Hey kiddo, glad to see you haven’t forgotten your old man here, so tell me courtesy call or coming to visit?”

Evelyn says “Coming to visit, our ship was damaged in a recent fight so it’s in dry dock right now undergoing refit. Estimated atleast a week.”

Malcolm says “You know you are always welcome, bringing guests?”

Evelyn says “3 friends.”

Malcolm asks “And anyone special?”

Evelyn says “You could say that.”

Already she is getting anxious as she knows he will be disappointed

What Malcolm says next surprises her “And how is she?”

Evelyn replies surprised “She’s very lovely and fun to be around”

Malcolm says “I’m happy for you, see you when arrive”

Evelyn says “Thanks dad, see you soon”

With that she ends the call and turns around to see Angel waiting there who asks “So are we going?”

Evelyn responds “Yeah let me gather my gear, I need to stop by the station and check in with my old when we get a chance.”

Together they leave passing the rest of the team on the way to the transport stopping briefly to chat with them

Gunner asks “Any plans?”

Evelyn says “Going to visit my father”

Gunner replies “Right, I keep forgetting you’ve only been a breaker for 10 years now.”

Evelyn nervously laughs and says “Yeah, lucky me, how long?”

Gunner sounding a bit more serious now says “Full damage assessment is in, the Hannibal is out of action for 2 months, it took an absolute hammering from Rhine, so get comfortable, you are home for the next 2 months.”

Looking around and seeing Lucia, Evelyn asks her “Want to join us? My dad’s place is close to Lake Armstrong on the outskirts of Fort Vanguard.”

Lucia smiles and says “Just give me the coordinates, I’ll go there once we have escorted the Empress to Camp Patton.”

Gunner then says to her “You need a break, we got this covered, besides we have 2 nobles in the entourage. I’ll meet you there once we are done.”

Lucia smiles and salutes “Yes sir”

She heads down to the armory and takes off her armor.

Taking only Morning Star as a defensive weapon, she gets dressed putting on jeans, a pair of knee high boots, tshirt and a leather jacket and sunglasses.

Joining Angel and Evelyn they board the transport, the flight was quite long so she asks them about their relationship “So how long have you two been seeing each other?”

Angel then replies “Only since New Dawn, so only a month”

Lucia nods and smiles and settles in for the flight, keys the intercom and asks the pilot how long, who says it’ll be around 5 hours, hearing this she decides to sleep for the flight.

She dreams of the past, left on the streets to fend for herself, the thrill of her first fight, exhilaration of her first kill, pain of her tattoo being done.

Angel taps here on her shoulder and she wakes up, saying to her “We’ll be landing soon.”

Lucia sits upright and thanks her, gathering her thoughts, she stands up and double checks that all her things are ready, once the ship lands they disembark and walk to the door, Evelyn ringing the bell, a couple of moments later her father opening the door a massive smile on his face and says “Evelyn, welcome home”

Evelyn hugging him and saying “Hi dad, let me introduce you to my friends, Angel and Lucia.”

Malcolm holds his hand out, Lucia greeting him first “Pleased to meet you sir.”

Malcolm replies “Pleasure is mine, I don’t get to speak to her often but Evelyn speaks highly of you, says you used to live in Fort Vanguard aswell?”

Lucia says “Pleased to meet you, born and raised”

Malcolm says “You look familiar, I am sure I’ve seen you before”

Lucia replies stress creeping into her voice “No I just have that kind of face”

Malcolm thinking nothing of it then greets Angel “Please to make your acquaintance Angel”

Angel bows as is customary on Amaterasu then takes his hand and shakes it “Thank you, you have a lovely home”

After everyone was greeted Malcolm showed them their rooms and places to stow their gear.

Looking at the photos on the wall Angel remarks “Wait, you had blonde hair once Evelyn?”

Evelyn sheepishly looks at her and says “I was 12, had a fight with my mom, I want to get additional piercings, she said no, so I used my allowance on a gene mod to change my hair colour instead, they never told me it would be permanent, change all my hair colour nor that it would change my eye colour either.”

Malcolm then says “And she got the hiding of her life after I got home from shift that night”

Angel laughs at this and says smiling “Well dark cotton candy pink is a good look for you”

They have a laugh and sit in the lounge, they sit and talk about Evelyn, how hard it was to raise her as a single father after her mother passed away shortly after her thirteenth birthday, the conversation drifting to Angel about her life before she was reborn as a glacier

“I used to be a dancer and a figure skater but all of us are required to enlist in the military for atleast 4 years by the Shogun, it was during this time my rebirth happened” Angel explained.

“At first I thought it was a mistake, waking up, my own weapon Mistral Destiny still stuck in my armor, taking it out was painful but the biggest shock, it is for most of us are the changes as to how we look, for me my hair colour didn’t change but skin and eye colour, I can’t even remember what colour my eyes were back then.” She continues

As Angel continues talking about her past Evelyn gets up to answer the communicator, pressing the answer button her former captain in the Fort Vanguard Police SWAT team Captain Donovan McInnes appears on the screen and says “Rookie? That you?”

Evelyn replies “HI Donovan, Nice to see you again aswell.”

Donovan laughs and says “So you back for good?”

Evelyn smiles and says “Atleast 2 months, tell you what me and a friend will come by the station and say hi to everyone.”

Donovan says “That’ll be great, I’ll make arrangements, see you in 20 minutes?”

Evelyn replies “Sure see you then.” Hanging up the call she asks Lucia and Angel “Hey, do you mind joining me quickly? Going to the station to say hello.”

Angel replies “You go ahead, I’m going to stay and talk to your father a bit more.”

Lucia says reluctantly “I’ll go.”