Off to war. Adi tells you her story

A van rolled up to take you and Adi to the spaceport. Training had already started by the time you had gotten your gear together for the journey and the two of you boarded for the trip. The first minute of the journey was quiet. The two of you just sitting there somewhat awkwardly as two strangers who had only met yesterday were prone to do. Fortunately, Adi decided to break the silence.

"I know why my mother asked you along. She thinks I'll lose my mind if I had to go alone." She said, looking out the window. A bit lost in thought. "Honestly, I don't know she's wrong. This is the first time I'm going out in two years. I've kept sharp by helping my parents manage training but it's different to do it for real." She didn't say anything for another minute as the scenery went by. "Everyones going to be thinking it in the back of their heads, how the Jarl's daughter lost her mind. Some are going to say something, thinking they're funny. They aren't. So I'd rather you heard about what happened from me instead of those idiots." Despite that she went quiet again for another minute, gathering herself.

"My team won Ragnarok, my best friend had been on the other side. Her name was Freya. We'd promised each other that we would go for one another so that we knew who the master would be after the battle. I managed to get her by trading the **** I'd grabbed originally so we were both happy with it. It was a bit strange at first but Freya insisted on doing things right. We spent the next month in lethal combat training and at the end of it I signed us up to go out on a raid. Our first. We were more than friends at that point. Honestly, I don't really know what we were." She stopped, gently touching at something hidden under her shirt. "We were going against the Incan Triumvirate. Raiding a colony that was only protected by a militia. Easy grab. Pirates had set up a base right before we arrived. We went down thinking it would be a regular fight but we got met with enhanced stun weapons fire. I don't know what she saw but Freya tackled me right before it opened up. She was hit and her suit froze up. The pirates were slavers. Not the kind that releases after five months either. Two of our raiding party were killed by the shots. The rest of us were gathered up. Their operation was blown and they loaded us up to run. They had more firepower on their ship than ours did and they had us as hostages. So they made their escape."

"They **** some of the others but they wanted to keep me and the rest 'undamaged for the market'. They didn't know that my armor wasn't locked. When they were posing as a merchant's vessel to get past a UCA inspection I managed to get a signal out. I shouldn't have done that. They'd decided to have Freya for their 'fun' and what I didn't know was that the UCA ship had a complement of their damned marines. The pirates panicked and started shooting, the marines were better than them and that should have been it. But when I went looking for Freya afterward, she'd been killed in the crossfire... I never got to... Never told her... Anyway, that's what happened." She said, obviously the fact that she was able to tell this story was partially due to the two years it had been since then. The tears on her cheeks that she didn't seem to notice said that time hadn't healed the wounds. There was obviously a second part of the story but you respected her privacy and her silence for the rest of the trip. You could tell that saying something like 'sorry' wouldn't be the best course of action. Instead, you gently rested a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even seem to acknowledge it. Her mind obviously two years ago.

When the van stopped at the spaceport you both got out and made your way towards the shuttle hanger. Off to war.