Sini Laaksonen

**Sinikka Tarja "Sini" Laaksonen** was a human A.S.T. Space Force officer who lived in the 90th century. The ill-fated commander of the Fifth Fleet during the 8927 Battle of Five Fleets, in mid-8947 she resigned her commission rather than lead an even larger force against New Canaan under Orion Guard command, correctly predicting the slaughter of the force. (*Know Thy Enemy*)

## Biography

Sini was born on the ocean world of Ahti in the 89th century.

Sini initially served in the ASTSF as a special forces operator, but an incident involving a Triselied spy in approximately 8887 "*cost me both my legs and my Ranger career.*" She subsequently transferred to the regular fleet.

At one point she was married to a fellow officer named Kaoru. During a period in command of the cruiser HWS *Warspite*, she engaged in an extramarital affair with her first officer, Chan. She was promoted off the ship shortly after, ending the affair. (*Know Thy Enemy*)

### Battle of Five Fleets

By 8927 she had reached the rank of admiral and was in command of the Fifth Fleet. Her flagship was the dreadnought HWS *Imperatrix*, part of the 66th Battle Squadron.

On September 9, while moving bases from Delta Eridani, she received orders to take the Fifth Fleet to the Bollam's World System, with two objectives: capture or destroy the ISS *Intrepid*, and demolish the fuel planet Aurora. BatRon 66 arrived several days ahead of the rest of the fleet on October 30, intending to rendezvous with Rear Admiral Chan's 171st Battle Squadron which had been in-system for several days, but instead arrived more than 12 hours into the Battle of Five Fleets, just in time to witness Chan's destruction at the hands of the Intrepid Space Force.

Sini reviewed the logs from Chan's flagship HWS *Zhukov* sent on the emergency channel, and vomited in shock at witnessing Chan be devoured by an ISF picoswarm from his own point of view. Combined with witnessing the power of the *Intrepid*'s stasis shields, she became convinced she could not capture or destroy the ship in a straight fight, and on November 3, she ordered the fleet to attempt to detonate Aurora, where *Intrepid* planned to refuel, in hopes of destroying the ancient ship as well. After objections from her flag captain, Fleet Captain Jaumet, and Senator Ceres of Wentworth, who had hitched a ride during their original base move, she ordered Ceres confined to his quarters and told Jaumet to proceed.

*Intrepid* finished refueling and burned for space too early, and Sini's AI, Thea, realized shortly after the fleet launched relativistic missiles at the Boller graviton platforms that the detonation would be enough to compress the core of the planet into a black hole. The ensuing disaster saw a sixth of the fleet destroyed.

Sini pursued the *Intrepid*, which Bob had put in stasis to survive a direct hit from the black hole's relativistic jet. As they reached RM range and fired, the colony ship dumped into the dark layer. Sini tried to pursue, but failed to pick up its trail, calling off the search on November 11.

On November 18, she returned to Bollam's World to find that Rear Admiral Lanza, whom she had left to hold the system with the two survivors of the 227th Battle Squadron, had been driven out by a Boller counterattack. She ordered BatRon 66 to rendezvous with Lanza, then relieved him and returned to Bollam's World in force to conquer the weakened system. (*Know Thy Enemy*)

### 8347

Sini lost her command after the Battle of Five Fleets and was reassigned to the Sirius Academy. In mid-8947 she was ordered to report to Eridanus Border Command, arriving on the HWS *Excalibur* on June 9. Fleet Admiral Jerra gave her orders to take command of a fleet of 20,000 ships the Hegemony of Worlds was marshaling to attack the New Canaan colony, settled by the ISS *Intrepid* in 8933. Sini heavily objected to the entire premise of the mission, and when Jerra offered to order her to take the mission, Sini resigned her commission instead. (*Know Thy Enemy*)

## Description

Sini had red-brown skin. She had significant Finnish ancestry and sometimes referenced Finnic pagan deities, and often ranted or swore in Finnish when she was agitated.

She enjoyed riispuuro. (*Know Thy Enemy*)