I walked in to the large board room with my game face on as the meager amount of security attempted to stop me before seeing who I was.

No matter what I do the name Sarken still does and will always have some pull in the Serco nation, that was why I ended up here. A little less then an hour before I had gotten a frantic call from a friend of mine going by the call sign Viper88.

It was garbled and he was talking way to fast but from what I could make out the Serco government had decided to make some budget cuts and with SCARs active members being at an all time low the axe was falling on them.

"We're sorry, we just can not justify the costs any more at this time Commander."

I was too late it seemed, the meeting was just ending and it seemed they had gotten the axe after all. Looking around I saw Viper and Nautargos where the only SCAR members present for the meeting, far from a good showing. Where was A-dawg I wondered.

Viper was working his jaw, I could tell he wanted nothing more then to kill every board member in the room, and Nautargos did not look any better. Not that I could blame them, stuff like this was why I had made sure ST6 became a private entity out of the governments control.

"That will be all gentlemen."

The chairman said as he ended the meeting. Viper and Nautargos stood up with saying a word, most likely afraid any out burst would make matters worse. I watched as they started making their way out of the room, and walked over to them.

"Y'all ok?" I asked.

Nautargos looked at me like I was daft, and Viper spoke up.

"Bureaucrats... I still got a few more things I can try but..."

I looked at him having been in his shoes before and placed my hand in his shoulder.

"Y'all let me know if you need any thing, but for now y'all have a place in ST6 at least until your guild gets back up and running again."

Nautargos looked me in the eyes as he spoke.

"I don't think we will be without a guild very long, but we'll consider your offer."

"We have to strike now!" I demanded for a third time.

"Lieutenant, you would be wise to regain your composure." The council abbot calmly replied.

"You have the information right in front of you, SCAR is dead, the Serco defenses are signifigantly weakened. If we attack now, we could end this war once and for all. No more people need to die!" I said as I felt Bojan put a restraining hand on my shoulder.

"Cool it," He said. "They're not going to listen at all if you lose your temper."

"Lieutenant Ghost," the abbot interjected. "We have already stated that the Itani military simply does not have the funding, nor the personel to launch a full scale assault. I suggest you stand down."

"They don't have the personel either, they're in worse shape than we are. That's what I'm trying to-"

"Lieutenant! You will stand down immediately and return to your post in Bractus. My decision is-"

"Your pacifism will be the end of all of us!"

There was a long silence in the chamber. I immediately wished I hadn't said that, but it needed to be said. These bureaucrats would sit and debate all day about the conflict but none of them would ever deviate from the teachings of Eo.

"Eo was a wise man with a wise belief," I continued. "But Eo's time is not our time. The Serco have attacked us once, what makes you think they won't do it again? How many more Itani have to die before you stand up and do something about it?!"

"Lieutenant!" The abbot bellowed. "You forget your place! I will not be patronized by your war born ideas. This council determines the actions of the Itani nation, not you and not Skygge Vakter. You take our orders, Lieutenant, not the other way around. As of this moment, you are officially suspended from duty until you can remember that simple fact. Commander Bojan will report to SKV headquarters in Bractus and remain there to operate both sections of SKV on his own. The council is adjurned."

I exchanged a knowing look with Bojan as the two of us left the chamber.

"Well that went well," He said. "Spending my time behind a desk in SKV command was not my idea of an ideal vacation."

"Sorry," I apologized. "It needed to be said."

"You didn't tell them about the message." said Bojan.

"They already know by now. But they still don't know what it means." I replied.

"True, but neither do we," He said. "Any response from Shape yet?"

"No," I replied. "I'm going to have to go find him myself. It seems I've been away from BLAK too long, my old ways of contacting them have fallen idle."

"Either that or they've stopped listening," said Bojan. I stopped walking and turned to face him. "We haven't exactly had a positive stance with pirates since we formed SKV. BLAK may no longer be on speaking terms with you. In your BLAK days, if you remember, you weren't part of an Itani special forces unit."

He had a point.

"I remember," I replied. "But I don't have any other options. I have to find them if we're going to decipher that message. God knows those bureaucrats won't do anything about it."

"So what do we do?" He asked.

"Go to SKV command like they told you, I'll be in touch." I said. "We don't want to show our hand to the council. Appearences must be kept up. In the meantime, I'll track down BLAK and use their help to decipher the message."

"And what if they're not so inclined to see you anymore?" Bojan asked.

"Then I may be flying home in a coffin, and I don't mean a Hornet."

As soon as my SVG docked I hoped out of the hatch and did a full sprint up to the Command deck of Skycommand, just stopping enough for the proper ID scans to be completed. Stepping off of the spotless deck plating onto the black and crimson carpet signifying I was entering the higher command area my heart started to beat faster than before. Emptying out my various concealed firearms onto the weapons-check-in tray I moved closer, the synthwood door with large inset frosted windows just beyond a small but efficient foyer getting closer by the footstep.

Just behind that door was the fate of the Sky Command Assault Regiment, formerly the Serco Cadre of Armed Renegades. Damn we'd been through a lot, I couldn't help but let out a rebellious grin show. Checking my onboard clock it said 14:47 hours, I was late, the meeting had started two hours prior. It was a hassle enough cutting through the bureaucratic tape to get off the SMV Prometheus and into here, let alone on time.

Walking into the foyer I crossed the imacculately clean carpet floor and reached for the door, it was firmly locked in place. A young female voice came from behind me explaining the situation.

"Sir, a priority three meeting is taking place behind those doors, any officer can't just walk in through, I'll need to see clearance."

Flicking my hair back behind my eyes I moved over to her tidy black desk by the corner, I had no time for playing military rank games. "My girl" the very "girl" Viper and Nautargos said they'd look after was about to get the great bureacratic axe, for "being larger than need be," and "not meeting the combat success quota." I had tried, its not like I had sat on the Prometheus and forgot about SCAR, SCAR was what made me, and I wasn't going to let it go without a fight.

I took out my data pad explaining I was a Commander in the Serco Armed Forces, currently in command of the SMV Prometheus, formerly in command of Sky Command Assault Regiment.

"Sir, I'll have to check with Command Operations and Administration, just a moment."

"I have to get in there-"

"The door's lock-"

Just then the door slid open, I threw myself in the corner of the room, ignoring the secretary at the desk and watched silently as Nautargos walked out dejected, a dead look in his eyes, devoid of hope. At that moment I knew, it was over... Viper88 joined him, frankly he looked like hell, command had taken a toll on him obviously, I couldn't blame him, running a guild as large as it was was no small feat. The rear admiral exited next, carting behind him his pen pushing minion. With nothing to say he walked past them with the smug arrogance of upper military command, his imp followed. The admiral was probably one of the true bastards responsible for SCAR's demise. The last one to exit hit me as a suprise, but not as much as I thought it would initially.

Borb II walked out after Viper and Naut, and breifly spoke to them. Nautargos, while looking rejected and tired looked Borb straight in the eye and replied, "I don't think we will be without a guild very long, but we'll consider your offer." The kid still had some spirit left in him.

Borb walked off wearing his signiture trenchcoat with the ease that naturally made him so charismatic. He had never been a fan of SCAR, it was no suprise that he'd offer ST6's support to ex-SCAR's at their official axing. I stood up, a pained look in my eyes obviously showing, not that I cared at the moment. I walked up to the other to pilots, still going over the death of their guild in their heads.

Nautargos then muttered to Viper, "Wait 'till A-Dawg finds out..."

"Already have, mates."

Naut, with lightning speed spun on his heel to see me standing there, I shook his hand and gave a nod to Viper, they both looked at me like sheep about to be slipped to the slaughter.

"Whats to be upset about, you guys did your best," What I said next suprised even myself, "go with ST6. Keep up the fight, we don't want those smurfs getting too close." I grinned.

They looked at me with some disbelief, and made for the hallway after Borb. As they strutted down to the docking bays I muttered, "I'll relive it without pain, You will see the ashes of the fallen rise once more, once again."

Once Cunjo was found, and I definately look into finding Cunjo, I'd find away off the Prometheus and back to SCAR, in whatever form it may take.

OOC: It was inevitable, to all those that were part of SCAR, I hope you had fun with us, it exceeded my expectations in every way. We really had something going there for a bit. For all those we fought against, I hope we made VO that much of a more interesting place, it didn't turn out quite like I imagined, but what does? SCAR is resting for now, but that spirit that we created (be what it was) will still live on in VO lore, and hopefully be looked back on fondly. All in all, it was a blast playing with you guys, and I hope you all had fun. That was SCAR's first purpose, to have fun. Also thanks to all the people who antagonized SCAR, without you, we wouldh have died long ago. Through 1 year and 6 months, it all has been a blast.

Viper88: Props to you man, you've been with SCAR since basically the beggining, its been fun flying with you bro, keep on rockin'.

Nautargos: You've grown a lot from the spamrag hot shot newb when you first joined to one of our most ambitious and productive Lt's who's ever held the position.

BUNNY: Your sense of humor (and combat prowress) remain unmatched, you made me seriously laugh out loud on MANY occasions. You were always there when we needed you most, laughing all the way.

Ote Koris: He's not around anymore, but he really should have been the CO, it was my idea, but he really took the burden of creating and giving SCAR its first name in the first beginning.

Cunjo: Our second "revolutionary father" your insight on how SCAR worked as well as determination and hard work turned our image around, some would say more than others, for the betterment of the guild and for VO. We'd also amazingly agree on something 99.9% of the time. Props to you, it wouldn't have been possible.

To anyone else not mentioned: You've been great and we'd love to have you all back at a later time, see ya' on the flipside they say.

EDIT FOR THE DOC: Putting you in an Lt position may not have been the best idea in hindsight, but it was more or less worth it. Cheers.

Regards,
A-Dawg

As Dr. Lecter shut down his live-feed syphon of Skycommand's internal surveillance systems, the image of a slump-shouldered figure retreating from the Upper Command level security/reception area lingered on the screen.

A few moments of thought yielded but a single conclusion: "no great loss."

[SCAR], that abomination of a Serco guild that had tried--and failed--to leave him to rot in an Itani jail, had finally suffered the well-deserved consequences of its pathetic "new ideals." Conflating incompetence and squeamishness with 'honor', [SCAR] had squeezed out all of its more admirable qualities, until finally even High Command could not turn a blind eye any longer. The one or two pilots worth salvaging would be snapped up and properly re-trained by [ST6]. The rest... they would scatter to the solar winds, maybe even drifting into [SoR].

Lecter eased back in the Itani-hyde chair and raised his glass of scotch in a mock salute:

"Sic semper... motherfuckers," he growled under his breath.

Smittens leaned back on his couch in Artana Aquilus, laughing louder than he'd laughed in a long time. This was the life, surely. A leave of absense relieving him from the responsibilities of an ever-growing guild, a soft squishy couch (mostly clean accept for all the stains from his teenage years), and a nice vegitable-free steaming cup-o-noodles, the TV uniquely tuned to Serco programming buzzing with the recent news of SCAR's disbanding, and to top it all off, Borb still owed him 9.5 mil. Life was good.

Then his Porta-Comm rang, and it all started going down-hill.

"'Ello?"

"Hello Smitty," came Borb's voice, making Smittens growl at once. Borb sounded WAY too happy for someone about to pay Smittens 9.5 million credits.

"Unless this is about how you're right outside my door with a 9.5 million credit stick, I really don't think I want to hear it."

"Oh, you haven't seen the news? I figured that fufilled my contract."

In that instant, his cup-o-noodles got cold, and a message flashed across his computer screen from GooBall "WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

"Nonononononono. Nope. No way, no. Nuh uh."

"I know I was late, but hell. This is about 50 times better than what you wanted, so I figure that makes up for it."

"No. Wait, what do you have to do with this, Borb?"

"Hehe...you know the answer to that. Same as always. Absolutely nothing."

"Well it doesn't matter. First of all, it's up to ME what relieves your debt. Second of all, I wanted him humiliated. Now every member of SCAR is being treated like a martyr now. Thirdly, why the **** do you want this? An influx of n00bs with no where else to go is surely gonna rid ST6 of their "Elite Warrior" rep."

"I gain 9.5 mil."

"Listen buddy, I'm not doing SHIT for Itan right now. The only thing on my mind is my desire, or lack thereof, for a political future. You can't threaten me anymore."

"That's what you think, but don't forget wh--"

"You have one week to do the job I PAID you for, and then I'll consider how much money to let you keep."

"I did my job!"

"One week," I finished, hanging up the PortaComm.

*Ghost, Ghost, Ghost...*

"What am I going to do about this...?" Shape wondered aloud.

"Well I think that's fairly obvious, don't you?" Gav replied.
"I mean, Ghost is a nationalist at heart, and you don't strictly see eye-to-eye on the whole *ELIMINATE THE SERCO* Vibe, do you?"

Shape sighed, it was true of course, Shape may have moonlighted as a soldier of the itani, but he had done the same for the serco. Anything to keep the balance, at least until the profiteering gluttons of the corporate empires could be wrested from their machinations. Perhaps then there would be peace.

"Only one thing for it then, eh?" said Gavan.

"Have fun?" Shape replied with a smirk.

Gavan laughed and finished his grog. "Exactly"

As I lay the the morning report aside I could feel a degree of melancholy settling in. Even though I had known for quite sometime that the demise of SCAR was inevitable, it was still coming as a surprise that it had happened.

I knew when I had left SCAR that the time was ripe for a new direction in my life...but never had I anticipated how far my travels would take me. In retrospect, I was correct in taking the SCAR moniker into the dimension I now find myself in. While SCAR may eventually fade in Serco memory, it will live on with a proud history that new recruits will learn of.

As I lean back in my chair, my thoughts drift back to that chance encounter with A-Dawg. I've never been a believer of destiny...but somehow it seems that our meeting was no accident. We both had the same idea, the same dream, so it was natural that we joined forces....and what a joining it was. We complemented each other perfectly, my weaknesses were his skills and visa-versa. Command has never been my forte, I've always been more comfortable behind the scenes. Command, in addition to other strengths, requires personality...and A-Dawg had it in force. A-Dawg is one I miss...and, as I glance to the right corner of my desk, that might explain the picture of us together as brothers-in-arms that sits there to this day.

I chuckle as I remember how naive we were in those days. The formation of the guild took place faster than we anticipated. We had expected to have other inititives in place beforehand so we were half-cocked when the guild came together. Somehow it all fell together...and for awhile times were good. In my quiet times, I still muse to this day if the rise in tensions between Serco and Itani were inevitable...or if somehow forming SCAR contributed to the eventual unrest....

The names come back to me in a flood....Blood Wraith, CptDeathViper, Draeca Sarn, Mazer Racham, Mustikos Roo, Perash, Steel, Turbosplatt.....and all the many that followed...all fine warriors. The times we shared are indelibly etched into my memory. Many developed beyond our expectations...and the ones that were lost will never be forgotten.

I am taken aback as I realize that somehow my memory has slipped, how could I possibly forget a name that was a large part of our initial forming...I guess it's time for that much needed vaction to Kryta I have been thinking about....

Dr. Lecter......what a interesting find he was for our young guild! I spend a moment reflecting back on Doc, the conversations, the shared battles and the degree of controlled insanity that made Doc a force to be reckoned with. When we had initially recruited him into SCAR it had been a momentous occasion for our fledging guild. A-Dawg, myself and a few others had kept at him until he finally joined. I recall that after my departure many things happened concerning Doc....I find them hard to believe despite what appears to be viable evidence to the contrary.

As a warrior, I learn all I need to know about a person when I enter combat with them. I recall many times I was secure in the knowledge of the good Dr on my right flank while engaging with a enemy convoy....and that means more to me than any stories I may now read. I don't know what led to SCAR turning it's back on the good Doc...and, as I reflect on it now, I guess I don't ever want to know.....

I recall how shocked I was when I read that my former guild had bailed out on the Doc....you could have knocked me over with a Tengu feather. I'm sure it was at that point I realized that SCAR was diminishing....a guild always supports it's members...right or wrong. I'm sure many would argue, but the time for judging would be after recovery of the member....not while the member is languishing under control of the enemy. Maybe there were outstanding circumstances....but it would never have been enough to convince me....

"Well, you don't shaft the good Dr. and not suffer the consequences" I mutter under my breath.

The news will never reach me of what part, if any, the Doc played in the demise of SCAR. My imagination will have to suffice..although I cannot possibly imagine the Doc taking it in stride and without retribution of some sort. In many ways the Doc reminds me of a legend concerning a warrior from Cantha, where I now reside. Never was a more loyal warrior found, until the powers that be turned their backs on him....and now his wrath is boundless.

Without realizing it, I have opened the bottom drawer on my desk and removed my prized bottle of Deldrimor ale and poured myself a fingers worth..

"Doc," I toast, "Happy hunting...and may the mists take pity on the prey you hunt!"

Pouring myself a double this time....

"SCAR, past and present, long may your warriors be victorious and long may your battles be spoken of!" I intone.

Suddenly, I am interrupted out of my reverie by a wild hammering on my office door.

"Enter" I growl.

"Commander Ote, the Luxons are massing near the battlefront!" my aide blurts.

"On my way," I say quickly as I rise swiftly, "Notify the rest of the guild....once more SCAR enters the fray."

"Great," I think to myself, "once more high command screws up and we have to go clean up. Ote Koris old boy, I KNOW it's time for that vacation...."

A-Dawg sat in the now crowded Commanders Berth of the SMV Prometheus, all his old guild files piled up from the floor, encircling his desk. He leaned forward in the functional desk seat and slammed his fist into the desk, inaudably cursing the newest intel report. Several dossiers of long past guild members slid into the center of the desk. The [SCAR] tag was being made a mockery by the Itani yet again. The bastards never gave up. Smittens, that wretched animal just had to keep running his vendetta against SCAR, always going for the sucker punches. Any rocks he could throw he did, and he did it with pleasure.

Then again, immitation they say, is a form of flattery. After having a small chuckle after re-reading the fake guild names, A-Dawg looked back down at his desk. Miracously, Ote Koris' file lay open amongst the other scattered e-papers. He picked up the electronic pad and scrolled to the bottom, where the Ote's last known residence was... Cantha.

Turning on the commscreen across the room, he typed in the planet address and local area codes. Pulling his shoulders back, trying not to look as weary as he ultimately felt, he turned on the camera he left a recorded message; "Ote old friend, long time. The smurfs may have stolen our tag, but we'll be back. As soon as I can get a transfer off this infernal ship, may take up to six months... But when I return, if you're still interested, you know where, its just a matter of when." He stated matter of factly.

A few moments after the message was encrypted to Cantha and finished sending the Prometheus lurched forward and went into an FTL hole off to Betheshee. A klaxxon rang, the one for the Commander to report to CIC. On his way up to the command deck, his thoughts drifted back to his old friend Ote, and what had become of him.