Kuroishi after all his adventures and travels was in the past few months was begining to realize exactly how much had changed but how little at the same time.
His otherself had gone and got married to a force using ghost. His homeworld was gone. In the end except for those two things nothing really changed and it might as well not have happened.
That was in fact the only way Kuroishi could deal with it right now.
He knew through all his insanity, logic, and pretnces everything had changed for him and his otherself.
It still troubled him that he didn't know which was the clone of the other. Potentially a really powerfull force user could determine that.
Then there was his love interest. Neeman Colpman and a few others from Varneck that were out plying thier various trades had managed to escape the death of Varneck. Considering Varneck was never colonized on purpose it didn't make Kuroishi that sad to see it lifeless again though he would miss seeing the sunrise over the citrus fields of his family's plantation.
That last thought brought a new pain to Kuroishi. The realization that he and his other self were the last of thier family unless his otherself had a kid with that ghost wife of his.
Despite everything he had done to her Kuroishi realized that he was still in love with Neeman. Thiers was an affair that streatched back almost twenty years now, back to when Robert Lee was teaching at the acadamy.
Kuroishi couldn't help but think of the original person that the clone was made from as almost a third entity since neither he or Daishi knew which was the real one.
Kuroishi's thoughts were interupted by the door of his quarters opneing.
"You should be asleep it's 01:00 hours." The voice of Reginold Greyscuttle broke the silence.
"So should you Captain Greyscuttle." Kuroishi replied.
Reginold Greyscuttle was Robert Lee's executive officer when he lead a marine boarding operation to capture five corvettes for the Varneck Planetary Defense Force from a bandit king who fancied Varneck as his latest treasure. As with all people from the high gravity wourld of Varneck in regular gravity Reginold seemed uneasy but tremendously powerfull at the same time.
"What brings the Captain of the Sweetums and Commodore of the fleet to my quarters?" Kuroishi chided.
"Buiseness and old times." Greyscuttle replied.
Kuroishi knew what that meant. The two of them had worked out a very complicated code that sounded like two old military buddies talking to anyone using a listening device. The great part was most of it wasn' a code at all.
"My otherself being that reclusive?" Kuroishi countered.
"I've been having some friends look around for what you requested but it isn't all that easy to find something that unique." The implications of trouble were already showing themselves in Reginold's face before Kuroishi motioned for him to stop.
"Don't worry. If this works out the way I think it will you'll have one hell of a favor I owe you." Kuroishi seemlessly continued.
Neeman Colpman had a vendetta against Kuroishi but since it was almost impossible to distinquish the two it carried over to Daishi as well. Psycologiclly they were actually somewhat distinct because they did have different experiences after the mishap at the labratory that created the ultimate clone.
The entire point of the project that created the clone of Robert Lee was to make a clone that was impossible to tell apart from the actual person.
Robert Lee was chosen to be the first person to be cloned with this method simply because so much was known about his background and his psyc evaluation indicated that he was the best suited candidate for the program. Unfortunately he was too well suited in some ways.
Neither Daishi or Kuroishi knew which was clone from the onset but they were given ID bracelets that they couldn't decipher. Feeling a bit prankish they decided to remove the bracelets. After that the project was cancled until a better test subject could be found.
That took place almost ten years ago now.
"I worry that this will end up like last time." Reginold broke the silence.
The reason Neeman wanted Kuroishi dead was because he put her brother in a fishtank for betraying him. Kuroishi couldn't understand why until his other self broke through the insanity. While he did keep his promise to bring Jansom Colpman back alive, he might as well be dead since every non-essential organ and bone was removed. After the receant adventures they had found him stranded on someworld that Kuroishi couldn't remember the name of being studied by a bunch of medical students. He was now back abourd the Sweetums performing his role as data analyst.
"No, it can't be like last time. You know as well as I do what has changed. Somehow I think that will make all the difference in the world." Kuroishi began to move to the mini-fridge he kept in his quarters.
"Since the breakup of the old gang you have always seemed a bit different yourself." Reginold waved off Kuroishi's offer of a drink.
"I wonder if any of them that went off on thier own are still alive." Kuroishi replied.
Aside from Argon Viper and Jociam Geist Kuroishi hadn't heard from any of the other Fallen Angels for a long time now.
Geist's relationship with his wife could rarely be described as romantic but somehow he was still with Melisa.
"Let's go get it then." Kuroishi broke his own silence.
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I actually got some insperation to write something again. If I hold to my curent patern I'll be adding chapter 2 of this story in a couple months.
I know I probably should have put this at the top but oh well the bottom works just as well.
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Great Death Leader of the Fallen
The Chief Instigator of Pain and Terror
GN Daishi(2LT Kuroishi)
"Victory through terror, terror through infiltration. Redefining pain and suffering since 2000 and damn proud of it." Fallen Angels motto.
"And the sound of many heads hitting many solid objects was heard throughout the land." me