Wings

[AztecWarrior]

I was a flight engineer. At least that is what I was studying for. Just as I graduated, rumors started circulating of 'Liberty's Call', this supposedly radical force. Any mention of it in front of guards or staff led to disciplinary measures.

Something went gravely wrong during the last semester of my fourth year. Fifteen students 'withdrew' the same day. Parents came in and everything.

I knew these guys. Some of my smart friends were there. Why did they withdraw? Does it have something to do with 'Liberty's Call'?

The administration at Ceryshen University was sledgehammer-subtle. The next day we were coralled, like hogs (due to increased riots by university students, then the moratorium on riots, riot cops guarded each campus) to the theater, where the principal came up and underlined that Liberty's Call is an unauthorized club, illegal in both the school and all the republic. Anyone caught speaking of it was subject to suspension and Terran law.

Clearly, being the studious alumni we were, it was obvious that there was a connection between the 15 expulsed and Liberty's Call.

On the way to the dorm, I was taken into a dorm. To make it sound as if we were doing a project, books were everywhere. They told me that they knew who Liberty's Call was, that the fifteen students were only the tip of the iceberg, and more. They gave me a small booklet, easily concealed, on Liberty's Call.

I met them a month before final exams. Their faces were veiled. They told me what they stood for. They informed me of the Vanu (also banned) threat. They basically repeated www.newconglomerate.com . I investigated what they said about history, and found it to be true. Except one thing: The group did not exist in the Registry of Approved Clubs.

I joined Liberty's Call.

I took the final exams and passed with flying colors. Free from the watching of the Riot police, we managed to meet. I saw their faces. They were people I knew, the last people you would figure to be radicals. These people managed to get a copy of an old, old book, Two Treatises, that was banned from the Republic.

The book states that the purpose of government is to protect Natural Rights, including life, liberty, and property. The Terran Republic had been doing none of them. It also stated the right to revolt if these rights were not respected.

It did not take a genius to figure out that revolt was on the horizon. To prepare, I joined the Terran Air Corps and became a pilot. Contrary to most, I was better at air-to-air in the heavy Reaver than in the light Mosquito.

I rose to the rank of Captain and led a wing of eight when the war broke out.

To be continued...