Adam Hackett: a simple man who never considered himself particularly special or extraordinary. He came to the island to escape the oppression of the Maritime Security Coalition, he simply couldn't abide to live by the will of anyone but himself. The fishing boat he stole to reach this place was still lodged in the reef exactly where it was left eight years prior, still within sight of his modest beach house. It was a humble domicile, built from materials salvaged from the base that made up most of the island.
He could never have expected his life to have turned out like this, never in a thousand lifetimes would he have guessed that he would ever come across a core pearl, let alone several. The shimmering white orbs were used to contain dormant Fog cores, with minimal functionality the core could run for centuries on its own internal power, making them useful as a sort of lifeboat or escape pod for Fog who wished to avoid capture. The pearls had washed up on his beach, and reacted to his touch.
It was like destiny, a princess awaiting the touch of her prince to awaken. Adam managed to install her on a fairly intact light cruiser hull on the south beach, and just like that she appeared before him. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Silver-blonde hair, fair skin that seemed almost porcelain, striking, hypnotic, ruby eyes with a slender, alluring figure, hugged by a violet gown that made her look every part a princess, he was captivated immediately. Love at first sight, even if she wasn't exactly human, though that was something that would remedy itself with time.
Their adventures began, he managed to restore a ship to combat functionality, as well as open the other pearls that had washed up with her, and with the Free Fog's help they became a formidable fighting force. The fleet grew, their assets grew, their home grew. Their island was now a considerable port, seeming more like a bustling military base than a pirate hideout. A village grew on the mountainside, bunkers dug into the cliffs, castles rose up above the foliage and soon one man sifting through inert nanomaterial became a complex operation of heavy machinery and automated drones dismantling old Fog wrecks and hauling tons of nanomaterial off the beaches every day.
Still, there were days when he longed for the simplicity of the old days. There were times he wished he could go back to the times when he could sit with his beloved flagship, holding her mental model in his arms as they watched the sunset together. Luckily with the harbormaster core able to control most of the island's operations, he could afford himself such luxuries now and then. Now they sat on the fruit of months of work, a chair swing for two hanging on the front deck of his beach house. He built it by hand from wood he found on the island, while it could easily have been fabricated, it was the effort that gave the object meaning, and it was why sitting with his beloved on it was so enjoyable.
After a private picnic on a secluded cliff overlooking a lovely waterfall, the could had retired to the old beach house to be alone. Not just from the other girls in the fleet, but from the entire world. It was at that humble abode that time seemed frozen in that peaceful, idyllic time when it was the two of them, enjoying each day together in paradise. The beach house was their own little slice of Eden, where a man and a woman could enjoy life without the world on their shoulders, with nothing to distract them from their love.
"I would like to withdraw my previous misgivings, commander," she still referred to him so formally, though he had long since learned to appreciate the emotions that lay encrypted within her words. "You were definitely right, the object carries much more meaning when it is crafted by hand."
"Of course," he replied, hugging her tighter against him, "I put my love for you into it, so we can enjoy those feelings every time we sit on it together, my dear, beloved Kongou."
