Beau Ward

#### Marshall the Stars

Beau is a great pilot whose unorthodox methods gets him bounced from assignment to assignment. Vice Admiral Sommers is looking for a last chance assignment before Beau is forced out of the service. Sommers gets a call from an old friend both he and Jack know. Hale's wife (Addy) and daughter (Lindy) are kidnapped by the Skaine Consortium to be slaves on a factory ship in the Tardex system. Beau is sent to the Tardex system to replace the Marshal who was killed and establish a law enforcement team. With no funds and little if any Federation support Beau is to create a small force capable of combatting crime in a far sector at the edge of the Federation.

Sommers gives him young LT Grady and the potential to recruit for a ex-Federation flight engineer and Tabitha points him to a Skaine "procurement specialist" who also needs a new start. Tabitha also provides the coordinates of the Fleet "graveyard" where they can potentially acquire resources.

Beau helps the Federation salvage ship at the graveyard fight off raiders and in return the Captain and his crew help the Squadron acquire a carrier and 4 fighters. The carrier is actually a garbage scow the Squadron names Dregs and has an EI named Bud.

Shortly after they revive the station a raiding party attacks the planet. The raiders are chased off and abducted settlers brought to the station. Unfortunately Grady's fighter is destroyed and he is presumed KIA. Only a few of the settlers want to remain on the station but they agree that Beau is the new marshal.

#### Battleflight

Beau is not getting direct funding from the Federation but Katy has found Federation supply personnel she can deal with. When the deal goes down the petty officer tries to switch out the trade goods for empty crates. Charli backs Beau up with a rifle putting the trade in jeopardy until the officer backs down and his Skaine and Shrillexian minions back off. Beau warns Katy a Skaine factor was part of the drop-off team and was asking about her.

#### Attack Wing

Beau continues to grow the station staff but is still desperate more fighters and pilots. The Marshall's Reserve alcohol is becoming a strong source of revenue but Admiral Sommers says he will probably not be able to provide more pilots. In addition, some of political toes Beau has stepped on with the squadron activities are pushing for an inquiry into Sommer's budget and activities.

The Kratch fighters continue to harass shipping in and out the system. The squadron fighters only keep the battle to a stalemate by superior flying, armor and weapons vs the Kratch speed. The squadron eventually captures some Kratch fighters intact enough to identify the Kratch as cybernetically enhanced cloned humans.

With Katy MIA, Jadd has to pick up all of the logistics and trading operations. He becomes adept at trading from Katy's training and builds up enough cash reserves and trade goods to acquire more fighters from the graveyard. Unfortunately Okreg, the head of the organization now running salvage, is skimming off the top and needs to have salvage metal equal to the amount the fighters would be. The squadron acquires the salvage from the freighters the Kratch had destroyed. The Dreg having been a garbage scow has plenty of container space to carry. When Jadd arrives with Beau and Elspeth at the graveyard Beau puts Jadd in charge and backs Jadd up when Okreg tries to push for more.

Beau also realizes that in addition to becoming a good trader for merchandise, Jadd has become a good source for intelligence and that once Katy was back Jadd could increase his activities on the intelligence front.

The Skaine's have returned the factory ship *Yrda* to the outer reaches of the Tardex system and blocked scanning with drone holograms. Remi and Jock are scanning the area looking for one of the squadron's drones and realize the ship is there. They call in the remaining fighters and are able to capture the *Yrda* after Nort, the Shrillexian over-captain who succeeded Iglon, escapes on the attack ship *Tortu*.

In addition to making the capture of the Yrda easier, Nort has been the key link in letting the squadron know where Katy is located and the urgency to free her. Nort's motive in helping the squadron find Katy is unclear. Maybe it is hatred of the Skaines or maybe preparing a bargaining chip for the future with the squadron. In the end he leaves the system vowing never to work with Skaines again.

#### Sector Force

Beau is beginning to believe life around the Station is turning a corner. They have recruited pilots and marines, the alcohol business is funding their costs. The peace is broken when Remi and Jock visit the Barrett mining colony planet. They find the company is essentially duping colonists to come to the colony and burying them in debt so they are in perpetual servitude. The pair meet Sally Hood who has been pressed into prostitution to pay off the debt, In their attempt to save her and her son they engage in a running battle where they do not acquire the son, Sal is injured, Remi, Jock and Sal are all declared fugitives with active Federation warrants.

Barkley Barrett, the CEO, is well highly connected in political realms, economic interests and the underworld. He tries to bully Beau into turning the trio over and when that fails he infects June with a worm and sets about to legally, politically and economically force Beau's hand.

Barkley has "bought" Federation Admiral Grace who calls Jack Sommers and Beau on the carpet. He forces Sommers to terminate the Marshals and redeploy their resources. Beau decides to split the Marshals off from the Federation forces and go it alone. All of the station staff support him when he brings the decision them. This includes their interns who realize it means they will not be able to go to the Federation Academy.

#### Interstellar Justice

June finally achieves AI status. She realizes the persona she had since Squadron arrived was not real. She keeps the June Ward avatar but now in color. She is frustrated with the Squadron because they played along with her "fantasy" instead of shocking her out of it. Beau explains their rationale in smoothing the transition from the old Marshall to the new Squadron by allowing it, expecting eventually the truth would come to her. They also enjoyed the care and warmth she gave to them as June Cleaver. She will continue to use the Leave It to Beaver names for the rest of the team although the Squadron is expected to call her June or Mrs. Cleaver and not Mom.

June's ascension makes it easier for Beau and Addy to grow their relationship. He appreciates her capabilities as his administrative assistant but feels growing affection for her which is reciprocated.

#### Frontier Law

Because of the safety created by the Tardex Marshall Service, Tardex has become a major shipping point for the independent traders. This has increased the economy of Tardex 2, especially with Kratch establishing a mining operation on the colony.