Starbound: A Space Odyssey

Planet Pandora, Beta Sector, Presidential Office...

Behind a simple red wood desk, a single woman could be seen.

It was a middle-aged woman with brown skin, short black hair and black eyes.

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One could say she would be beautiful if not for a burnt scar that covered half of her face.

She was currently wearing a masculine black suit that complemented her stoic and cold vibe.

The aura emanating from her give away her origins from the military. It was pretty easy to tell that this woman had been through some tough battlefields.

This woman was the recently elected president of the United Earth Government, after the previous one died at the attack on Earth, together with the vice-president, ministers and all high officers of the government, which made it a need to elect a new leader.

She won the popular vote, as well the planetary vote.

The new president, Nicole Gonçalves, was a battle-scarred war veteran for the special Mecha unit of the UEG's army known as Furia.

Furia is specialized in suicidal ground missions.

When the mission is difficult, and there is a need of a heavy firepower, the UEG call Furia to do the job.

Alongside Furia, there's three more elite units in the army.

The Wraiths, the Kaiserliche and the Spartans.

Furia is the ground based elite Mecha unit; Wraiths are the elite spies, assassins and informants; Kaiserliche is the elite outer space unit of the army with their enormous fleet of spaceships and the elite pilots; and the Spartans are the best soldiers in the UEG, they mostly operate in ground operations, but they also use spaceships and Mechas.

She was basically elected because in a time of great instability and uncertainty, Humans often choose strong and great leaders to lead them. She was the only choice available at the election.

Her election wasn't easy, soon after she was elected, insurgencies and militias sprouted everywhere in Human planets against the new president.

In the face of this obstacle, she showed her strength and leadership capability by squeezing every bit of those armed opposition with her army.

She even went to the battlefield herself and lead the charge.

Those groups funded by Letheia and Miniknog were completely obliterated by her.

Without hesitation and neither showing restrain, she commanded the army to shoot down the militias and insurgencies.

Her cold-blooded actions made those that wanted to try take her on to cower in fear.

After flexing her strength, she easily took the office and started to make changes by expelling the corrupted officers and those in the pay check of Letheia and Miniknog.

Nicole basically wanted to bring the UEG back to its former glory with patriotic and younger officers in politics.

And this woman was sitting on her chair with her back straight as she shuffle through some documents in her computer.

Nicole was looking through all the information the Wraith agents gathered about those in the UEG that were receiving money from outsiders, mainly Letheia and Miniknog.

*Knock*

*Knock*

"Come in." Nicole said as soon as she heard someone knocking on her office's door.

"Excuse me, Mrs. President." Nicole's secretary slightly opened the door and carefully looked over the middle-aged woman behind the desk, "Esther Bright wishes to see you."

"Esther?" Nicole lifted her eyes from the monitor and looked over the secretary at the door, "Let her in."

"Yes." The secretary bowed and silently left the room.

Nicole dropped down what she was doing and stared at the door that was once again being opened.

The person that entered this time was a old woman with gray hair.

She was slowly approaching Nicole with her hoverchair, since this woman has lost all movements in the legs.

The one that just came in was, of course, the previous Grand Protector, Esther Bright.

"Long time no see, Nic." Esther smiled as soon as she got closer to Nicole.

"It has been a while... Esther." Nicole greeted Esther with a wide smile on her face that turned slightly hideous because of her injury that covered half of her face.

"I haven't seen you aver since you left Earth." Esther shook hands with Nicole before she retreated a little and maintained a certain distance from her, "Back then you were still a young girl. Although smart and a good soldier, still had the nativity of youngsters. Look at you now, successful in both military and politics, it seems."

Nicole chuckled in response to Esther's reminiscing about the past, "You taught me well, teacher. I'm what I am because you were my teacher back when the UEG's army was making some training collaboration with the Terrene Protectorate."

Esther smiled as her eyes clouded and her mind travelled to the past, "Yes...good times..." She soon recovered and looked at the injury in Nicole's face, "Looks like your time at the military weren't smooth sailing."

"Oh? This?" Nicole touched the burnt mark that covered half of her face, "I have more than enough money to fix it, but I left it there. It reminds me to never underestimate my enemies."

"What happened?"

"The usual, my squad invaded a planet that was being run by a militia. We defeated them, and decided to not kill everyone. After arresting some of the soldiers, we called it a day and went back to our spaceships, but just when he got boarded, one of the handcuffed militant broke free and threw some kind of acid in my face. They gave up pretty peacefully, so we underestimated them and we gave them better treatment than we usually give. This led to them breaking free and almost slaughtering the entire squad. I was lucky to have survived."

"That's unfortunate..."

"Not really. Like I said, the injury reminds me to never have pity, underestimate and neither mercy with my enemies. I guess is true what people usually said thousands of years ago, what doesn't kill you make you stronger."

Esther forced a smile as she cautiously scanned the woman in front of her.

The innocent and naive girl at the training camp has turned in this merciless and cold-hearted woman.

Conflict and war really change people...

Esther sadly sighed.

As a Grand Protector she tried everything in her power to stop wars but she never got near to her objective.

She partially blame herself, that's why she decided to carry the burden of saving the universe from the Ruin on her own back.