Kaitlyn Quinn Anlessa was born to Charlotte and Castor Anlessa on September 27th, 2017 AE on Aerilon, though she would only love there long enough for her mother to recover from the pregnancy before her family relocated to Scorpia. Almost from the get go, Kaitlyn seemed destined to fly among the stars. Maybe not piloting a Viper as she would eventually come to, but it almost was a birthright for her, in many ways. Born to parents who worked in different divisions of the Scorpion Fleet Shipyards, like so many other children’s parents, at a young age she was exposed to the vast and interesting concept of ships, traveling in space, and piloting.
But for Kaitlyn, what really sealed the deal for her came at age eight when her mother purchased for her a model Viper for her to fly around to her heart’s content, and almost immediately a love for all things sip based was born. Caught constantly in classes reading articles about ships systems and piloting instead of her school materials, she was bitten by the bug at a very young age – something no one was really sure what to do about at the time.
It was in her teens, using what she had read all those earlier years, that she really took a forward interest in the technical side of things, learning ow to to work with and repair first just broken things around the house, but eventually she was more or less able to make a job out of it, all in the name moving closer to her goal of someday flying. She showed a natural knack early on for this technical side of things, often even going as far as to comment that she sometimes felt connected to anything she fixed – a sentiment that occasionally raised eyebrows, but was never questioned due to the quality of her work.
The big turning point for Kaitlyn came when she turned eighteen. Her parents had wanted her to go to work at the shipyards, to put her technical expertise to use there – and hopefully in the process earn herself a fair amount of money with which to support herself and the family. However, simple shipyard work, as much as it woul have indulged her, was never something Kaitlyn had considered for herself. Her place wasn’t in a repair bay working as an engineer or a glorified repair woman.
No, her place was in a cockpit. So without hesitation, she signed up for Fleet School on what seemed to some to be a total whim, her parents initially unwilling to support her in this venture. After some resistance, they relented, and she entered in the search of a degree in Mechanical Engineering. But she had no plans to stop there – her goal was to work through to Flight School so that she could realize her dream of flight and of adventure. Sure, the military might not have been the best place, at least at the time, but she just knew she was good enough that it was pretty much guaranteed shot. That is, if her academic work didn’t sink her first – Kaitlyn was a doer, not a thinker, and if often reflected in her work. Still, she was able to finish enough to continue on to what she truly wanted to do.
For flight school, Kaitlyn was stationed on Tauron at CFAB Tartarus, where she saw through her the majority of her flight training. Technical skill was something she excelled at, and her piloting was among the top of her class, but two things held her back – once again, academics presented a small problem, as well a developing habit of recklessness and overconfidence. While never enough to earn her serious disciplinary reprimands or demerits, it was certainly enough to extend her training time from 20 to 24 months – not to mention the times she got in trouble for participating in unsanctioned gambling – games of Triad in particular were a favourite. Part of it was natural brashness coming to light, part of it was how much she hated Tauron, fraking landlocked wasteball.
In her 20th month of training – in the midst of her Advanced flight training – tragedy struck. What started as a routine day of prep for training quickly turned into a firestorm as the Cylons descended on what would become known Warday. It was with sheer luck and determination that Kaitlyn managed to survive that day, with a handful of others. Luck and determination only last so long, though, and the following near year were fraught with constant danger. In one fell swoop, everything Kaitlyn Anlessa had known was gone, traded instead for a life on the run.
Survival came with low odds, but Kaitlyn and those she had hooked up with got by on ingenuity and stealth. Such a life was not without peril, however, and on at at least two occasions Kaitlyn herself suffered minor injuries escaping from Cylons, once only narrowly avoiding being left behind entirely. Her small group of survivors – oh which she was never a leader, but always a part of – constantly fluctuated as some were shot dead or left behind, other small groups of survivors joining with them as they were found – but without fail, the group would always grow to big, forcing them to flee as some were left behind to their fates. It was something that always ate at Kaitlyn, but she tried to never show it. She couldn’t stand the thought of being left behind because she decided to have a break down.
The months took their toll, however. Supplies and people run thin after a while, and fatigue starts to feel like it’s never going to lift, no matter how much rest one gets. After a while, you stop running into more survivors, and it’s just you and a handful of people who could e gone at any moment. Eventually, even the most confident of people wears down, and when things seemed their bleakest, when Kaitlyn had finally lost track of the days and track of even what the date was, the last thing she ever expected to happen, happen.
Rescue came.
Apparently it was early in December 2041. Almost a year after all of it started, and Kaitlyn herself couldn’t believe it. But she was in no room to complain, fatigued and in shock as she was transported to Battlestar Cerberus. It was nearly a month that she was restricted to sick bay the her rack as she recovered from a year of poor nourishment, fatigue, constant, strenuous activity, little sleep, and numerous other things that had come to plague her as she fought for survival on Tauron. On the outside, she seemed to quickly return to her normal self, if with a more pronounced bent towards her love for playing the odds, and a newly found fear of the dark, brought on by numerous Cylon attacks once the sun had fallen on Tauron. But on the sinde, she was much slower recovering. Her family was lost, along with most of the rest of her species, and she could still barely believe she’d managed to fight long enough to be where she was now - alive.
Once she was cleared by medical staff, seemingly stabilized mentally and physically, and her records as a Viper trainee we confirmed, she was almost immediately ushered back into training exercises aboard the Cerberus so that she could join the ship’s corp. of Viper pilots. They needed all the hands they could get, and even after all that had happened, Kaiylyn was eager to get back in the air.
After all, some Cylon ass needed kicking, and if she could be the ace in the hole that gets it done, why should she shirk that duty? Now she prepares to enter true active duty for the first time, even if she’s already seen much on the surface of Tauron, things that will haunt her all her life. One can only hope, from here on out, things will be better.
Even if that’s a long way off.
