Ghostbird
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 | This article may be very hard to understand. Sometimes this can be due to issues with the translation to English. In particular, this page has multiple spelling, grammar, and sentence issues. |
| |
| Ghostbird | |
|---|---|
| Story information | |
| Author | Bryan Young |
| Type | Short Story |
| Product | Shrapnel Issue 11 |
| Content | |
| Universe Date | 8 September 3144 - 9 January 3152 |
Ghostbird is a short story by Bryan Young that was published in the eleventh issue of Shrapnel. It is both the prelude and continuation of A Question of Survival.
Plot summary[edit]
On Sudeten 9 January 3152, Alexis Zarnofsky and her sibkin are fighting their Trial of Position into their new Clan, the Jade Falcons. Daniel, her sibkin but also worst enemy, fights his Trial in simulators. Alexis, meanwhile, recalled her childhood on the streets of Antimony, Quarell and how her group of children planned a theft of a Ghost Bear officer. The children send Alexis, promising to help her if she was in trouble. But when the Clanner discovered and caught her, Alexis' friends simple left her. The Ghost Bear warrior, Star Colonel Aoi Bekker, laughed at Alexis' pretenses to have a family, and took her to an interview room, where Alexis' determination to not eat biscuits from a plate wasn't strong enough to keep her from eating them all.
After Alexis' attention returned to the present, she saw that Daniel had barely won. He had attained one kill before getting shot down, which made him a warrior. Then it was Alexis' turn to fight.
Alexis played a cat-and-mouse game with a Rifleman, managing to down him, but at a high cost to the armor on her Savage Wolf. Despite just having become a warrior too as a result of the kill, Alexis refused to stop and chased her second opponent, a Phoenix Hawk. Both fought each other until her simulator turned off.
Alexis remembered how, on Antimony, the Star Colonel promised her a real family and an opportunity to become a warrior. The next day, the warrior took her to a sibko training facility, presenting Alexis to her trainer. She too met her sibkin and received a warm welcome. One member of the sibko, Daniel, met her with open hostility. Alexis realized that reaching her goal won't be easy.
On Sudeten, Alexis emerged from her simulator and was surprised when everybody was applauding her. To her amazement, before being shot down, she had managed to kill the Phoenix Hawk she was fighting, which made her a Star Commander. Even Daniel was friendly with her. Alexis was even more surprised when Khan Chistu personally congratulated her and said he expected great things from her.
Alexis felt happy knowing that now she really was at the right place and had a real family.
Featured characters[edit]
- Alexis Zarnofsky
- Aoi Bekker
- Daniel
- Dawn (Clan Jade Falcon)
- Jiyi Chistu
- Sophie
- Thomasin
- Sasha Ivankova