Cecilia Fleming

[Machofish]

 

Name: Cecilia Fleming

Age: 40

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Blood Type: B-

General Occupational Role(s): Security.

 

 

Biography:

 

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Detailed early-life personal data unavailable - considered irrelevant.

Archival academic records for NT Security members are unavailable - considered irrelevant.

 

Born in the frontier mining colony of Labourtown, New Magnitka, 2524, to parents Gerard Fleming, Elaine Fleming. Siblings: Bruce Fleming, Theodore Fleming, Dominic Fleming.

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Mom and Dad were first-generation colonists. Moved to Labourtown from an over-industrialized SolGov colony to work in hydroponics. Bruce worked in the mines, Dominic worked in meteorology, Theodore was... well, he was a bit of a deadbeat: 'moved in with some friends' after repeatedly failing secondary education. Never heard from him much.

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Enlisted as a constable into Labourtown’s police department at the age of 21, year 2545. Remained employed as a constable until 2548.

In 2547 an exposé revealed that Tamarack Prospectors, the mining company holding New Magnitka's development rights, had falsified geological surveys. The mining colony had been operating at a significant deficit for over three years, and kept afloat by taking in new investors. The Tamarack ring holds the dubious honor of being one of the first 'successful' pyramid schemes to operate at an interstellar scale. 

With Tamarack's collapse, the Labourtown colony was left in a tenuous position. The atmosphere and ecosphere of New Magnitka was not hospitable to human biochemistry, and as a result the colonial population were housed in a series of arcologies -- artificial, self-contained ecosystems designed to support human life. While the colony was ostensibly fully self-sufficient, maintenance and upkeep required materials and expertise that were not readily available.

When the Tamarack Prospectors company was finally forced to declare total bankruptcy in early 2548 and enter insolvency, the topic of Labourtown's residents had yet to be resolved.

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"When a company goes bankrupt, the traditional practice is for a governing body to seize the company's possessions and either hold onto them as nationalized assets, or auction them off. Problem was that there wasn't a precedent for this taking place on an extraterritorial level: Tamarack was not subordinate to any specific government. Who would take responsibility? SolGov? SCA? Nobody really wanted to deal with us, either: whoever took responsibility for us would have to subsidize us, move us, feed us, train us, employ us. But since we were so out of the way, well, you know how the saying goes: out of sight, out of mind. It was decided by the interstellar community that we'd do just fine by ourselves, living in delicate plastic-and-metal domes that we couldn't even maintain without offworld support.
We actually did manage fine on our own for a year or two, then equipment started breaking down and... things got ugly."

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As Tamarack had previously managed municipal affairs, their collapse resulted in a total dissolution of central authority and organization. Systems of payment, healthcare, and agricultural management all needed to be replaced. In 2549, a political faction emerged in Labourtown, claiming that the Elysium Republic had extended an offer of membership to Labourtown, in return for subordination to Elysium doctrine.

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"In short: for Elysium to let us join them, the humans who made up 63% of the colony's population needed to turn against the 37% non-human population. What that meant in specific, I have no clue and nobody seemed to know for sure—it should go without saying I wasn't a big supporter of that idea."

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Civil Disorder

Officially, the series of violent civil conflicts that took place in the Labourtown arcologies between 2549-2556 are not acknowledged as a "war" by the interstellar community. Factions emerged, barricades were constructed between various arcologies.

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"It was around this time that the Police department crumpled. After the collapse of Tamarack, Labourtown's cops fell into three overarching categories: Those of us who continued wearing the uniforms out of principle and ideology--a little stupid since we weren't exactly sure who was calling the shots, second group was those of us who simply burned the uniforms and wandered off because 'No Silver, No Swiss', and last were the less-savory types that felt no more corporate enforcement meant that "law" now meant "I have a gun, and I can get away with anything I want".

I fell into the first category of the three. Like I said, stupid of us.

Intervening in the fighting happened like this: there'd be a Pro-Elysian mob marching into a neighbourhood to cause trouble, and an Anti-Elysian mob forming forming to confront them, then we'd come out with our riotshields and try to form a barrier to stop the two mobs from ripping into each other. This meant that both sides of the conflict would attack us: The Pro-Elysian mobs thought we were supporting the Anti-Elysian mobs, and the Anti-Elysian mobs thought we were Pro-Elysian. It was pointless, thankless, and got a lot of us killed.

Not all that different from working in NT security, come to think of it.

Mind you, the population really didn't have the energy to keep the riots going--when medical supplies ran out, a broken arm or a concussion meant months of recovery instead of mere hours. Infected injuries could still be treated with spaceacillin, but since the stuff was being incubated manually there was no guarantee that it'd be available in time. We still had the technology, just not enough of it to go around. There was a definite point where things went back to... well, I'm not going to say 'normal' but I'll say 'almost-sane' for lack of a better description. The demagogues and firebrands still kept people angry at each other for pointless reasons, but thankfully people just didn't have the energy to sustain open conflict. In lieu of a police force, each arcology dome raised a sort of 'local militia'--usually just a glorified street gang. It was possible to travel between the contested areas, as long as you knew what bribes to place and reacted the right way when the militias postured at you. Don't get me wrong, every now and then there'd still some young idiots who could get duped into outstandingly dangerous stunts, like trying to sabotage life support systems for certain arcologies or chucking molotovs at the militia checkpoints. The majority of us realized that we'd have to live with what we had."

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The earliest passable evidence of Cecilia's subsequent employment as a 'fixer' comes from an interview in June 2550, published by freelance reporter Qrullur Xriquo.

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"Fixer" is a slang term from crisis-zone journalism: I'm not sure how it became commonplace, but it essentially meant that I was a reliable local guide. I knew my way around: what neighborhoods were safe, locals trusted me enough that I could set up interviews for offworlders, and I knew how to move people back and forth across the seedier arcology domes without getting robbed, beaten, shot, or worse: That last part was probably what I was getting paid for, really."

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Leaving Home

In early 2556, the Nanotrasen Corporation were compelled to purchase the mining rights to New Magnitka. The employment contracts of the surviving colonists were folded into NT.

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"'Compelled'. Interesting choice of words. I'll put it this way: just because no interstellar gov or corp was willing to touch us didn't mean that offworld traffic stopped. It just meant that different types of people started visiting us. There's quite a few people who'd have a reason to visit a colony with next-to-no megacorp or interstellar gov presence. We were getting offworld supplies, but I got the feeling most of the supplies coming through were hijacked or stolen. I think NT didn't like the idea of nascent pirate haven sitting within spitting distance of their fancy new stations. I'm sure they'd have been happier just bombing us into scrap."

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"Employment with NT came as a surprise. I'd figured something would give, but it was still a shock. Just... one day I woke up, everyone else in the Laszlo shelter crowding at the windows. I went to look, and up there, silhouetted by the moon, were two great big Nanotrasen space vessels. Not the cheap, blocky mass-produced stuff they use for their research stations, mind you, these were the things they deployed when they wanted to make a point: anodized, expensive, sexy and sleek. Neither the NSV Bantam or NSV Billhook were dedicated combat ships, yet the standard armaments on either one of them could have reduced Labourtown from 'ramshackle shanty-town' to 'a smouldering crater'.

It made me feel very small.

We were all in a sort of daze, I guess. Our world had been confined to that labyrinth of wrecked environmental habitats and failing algae-encrusted hydroponics farms for so long, we'd presumed the outside galaxy forgot about us, or maybe we'd forgot about them."

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Upon passing preliminary medical and literacy tests, it was determined Cecilia's previous work experience made her a useful addition to Epsilon Eridani's security roster. She has been serving in NT's Epsilon Eridani roster since 2557.

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"Mhmm. 'Useful addition', cheery way of putting it. Let's not beat around the bush here: NT doesn't train their security officers. That's not a hyperbole, that's just a plain fact to anyone who's had to deal with NT Sec before. When it comes to filling the security teams, NT really scrapes the bottom of the barrel. I wasn't so much 'picked' for security as 'thrown in with the other dregs'."

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With six years of service to NT and counting, Cecilia is one of very few "senior" staff members in Epsilon Eridani's active security roster. 

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"Whoever wrote this out seems to have forgotten to mention what happened to my folks, so I'll put it here:

My parents went missing on 2553. They were last seen in the De Havilland residential arcology when its life support systems were destroyed by a saboteur. Gerard and Elaine were aged 87 and 79.

Bruce, my older brother, is still enlisted with NT. He climbed the ranks pretty quickly. Apparently he's some hotshot commander for the NCV Scylla now, but I don't know more than that. IWe were brought up with a certain emphasis on family obligations. I was the eldest daughter, he was the eldest son. Our parents kept telling us 'you gotta look out for Theo and Dominic' and we really took that to heart. When Theodore went missing we... said some pretty harsh things to each other that can't be taken back. We're estranged. I'd rather leave it at that.

Dominic -- middle brother. He did well for himself, all-in-all. He's married, now. I won't go into Francisca's story or her family or we'll be here all day. She's... well, the word that comes to mind is 'airheaded' but that's not quite right. ...She takes her personal safety for granted. I get the sense she's never had to grovel to an armed militia on the way to getting groceries or never been hustled out of her home in the middle of the night because the adjacent block's life support just got bombed. They've got two children -- niece and nephew, aged 7 and 5, cute as buttons. I have dinner with his family sometimes, and... it's nice. I mean, Dominic makes me put off the cigarettes for a full day and the cravings practically kill me, but other than that it's really nice. He says his kids are always excited when he tells them their 'Aunt Cecilia' is coming over for a visit, which I find absolutely hilarious. I'm happy for him.

As for Theodore, my kid brother... He was barely keeping himself afloat even when Tamarack was still in business, so after those social safety nets disappeared he... I lost contact with him completely. NT didn't find him when they gathered everyone else up. Not that they're too meticulous with that sort of thing."

So there you have it: my life, in broad strokes. It's a little overly-dramatic and I think I waste way too many words on self-pity, but all the major details are there.

Besides, I'm sure you didn't come all this way just to read a detailed account of someone leading a boring, ordinary, believable life -- where's the fun in that?"

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Qualifications:

 

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• Chain of Command.
• Weaponry training: energy, ballistics.

Forensics equipment training. Space Law.*

 

*Presumed from prior employment; not validated by approved NT training. To be considered conjecture, and subject to review and possible recantation by local HR management.

 

 

Employment Records:

 

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Constable 2nd Class, Labourtown Law Enforcement Services (2545-2548, Retired).  Fixer; bodyguard; warzone correspondent, freelance (2550-2556, Retired). Divisional roster - Security, Nanotrasen - Epsilon Eridani (2557-Current).

 

 

Security Records:

 

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Cecilia has been the subject of a significant number of complaints and requests for dismissal by Nanotrasen IAA, primarily in relation to her ostensibly arbitrary attitude towards Space Law. While her actions have necessitated disciplinary action from time to time, she has received no long-term suspensions thus far.

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"If this were an audio recording, this is where you'd hear me give a very nervous chuckle. I won't butter it up or downplay it: I've fucked up before. I don't want to brush past mistakes aside with some optimistically backhanded remark like "nobody's perfect," because making imperfect decisions in this line of work tends to get people hurt. I'll put it this way, I'm thankful that none of my past mistakes have been recorded here as of yet, though I acknowledge that does not necessarily mean that I've lead a spotless career."

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Medical Records:

 

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Cecilia's procedural examination following initial employment revealed no significant medical concerns; her most recent genetic backup stored on-record is to be considered physically fit and able.

She is encouraged to limit her smoking habits.

  Quote

I like how mental health never factors into this. Around here, you either start off a little crazy, or you go nuts.

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Personnel Photo (Appearance text):

 

5-foot-11. Blonde, gaunt. She has deep creases under her eyes, an angular jaw, and slight frown lines.

 

Commendations [only to be added by admin]:

 

Reprimands [only to be added by admin]:

 

Other Notes: Edited 2021-05-23

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by Machofish
Trimmed a bit more.