CYOF Fanfic RPG - The Game - updates

OOC: Sorry for the longish wait, this is a combined effort of DSQrn and myself. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> The small fleet of ships dropped out of cruise near the Sprague docking ring. Nick smiled, as he was happy that there was no interference on the way; he was tired and he wanted a shower and some food before any more blasting. “...Cleared to dock.” The robotic voice jolted Nick back into reality. “Right, right...” He thought “Focus....” His ship touched down near the others, who were already talking in a ring at the landing pad. Nick hopped out of his ship and jogged up to them. “Scott!” He called. “Aye, sir?” came the reply. “Unload the stuff and hand them over to local Command HQ, we need some intel on what it is.” Nick said. “Now, gentlemen, while the items that we have found are being looked at, I recommend we take five for some R&amp;R.” “Smoke if ya got em...” One of the squad members mumbled. Nick smiled. ---- Nick washed his face in the small room the BAF had provided for him. It was good to get in some relaxation. He walked over to the couch and sat down. After he flipped on the holovision projector, he checked his guns for ammo and such. “And so, Rheinland still asks ‘Why was there such sudden chaos from a terrorist and/or his affiliates?’ But now to sport-” Nick flipped the thing off and grunted. He was about to turn over and go to sleep when his COM buzzed. “Major Warren....” He said with a sigh into the damned device “Major, we have the results on the items found in Omega-5.” “Better be tea...” Nick said softly. ---- Nick entered a room which had a large table with several ship guns and a black box and some hull fragments. “Gentlemen?” Nick asked as he looked at Konn, Nikolai and Gabriel. Konn looked at Nick and said “The scientists said that the hull is composed some kind of polymer matrix overlaid on top of a standard ship hull, designed to reduce sensor efficiency at picking it up at close range.” “And nothing at long range,” Gabriel chimed in. “Also the guns are Nomad-based in some way. They´ve probably been reverse-engineered somehow.” “Scuse me, Nomadic guns.... Guns without homes...?” Nick asked. Konn looked up at Nick looking a bit puzzled, and Gabriel also shot him a glance. Nikolai just laughed. “He doesn´t know this sh*t does he?” Nikolai said, then laughed. “Pardon?” Nick asked. Konn spoke quietly. “A while ago, an alien species in Sirius invaded Rheinland. We call them the Nomads. They pilot ships that are unlike anything we´ve seen in Sirius, and are tough in a battle. Governor Jack Mason – do you know who he is, Major?” “Yes.” “Mason has a way of controlling Nomad ships, and used them in Sigma-17 to attack House fleets. As a result of this, half the Bretonian fleet was stolen due to the confusion immediately after Mason called off the attack. A confederate of his, who we think is named Juan, was going to use the stolen fleet as a Trojan Horse to attack Kusari. We´re not sure why Bretonian ships rather than Rheinland ships, but it would have caused no end of confusion and would have triggered a war between Kusari and Bretonia. “So there´s your story about some of the things that went on in Sirius when you weren´t looking, Major.” “Wow... I´ve really been out of the loop...” Nick stuttered “I´m... surprised that someone else hasn´t noticed all this...” “Well, the Houses are not anxious to publicize the fact that they were surprised in a sneak attack, with the Bretonian fleet absconded with – although subsequently returned – and a good portion of the Rheinland fleet laid waste by the Bundschuh. But, water under the bridge and all that.” Konn said “Question being, what course of action should we take?” “Well...” Nick said, tapping his fingers on the table. “I would recommend we head to a Junker base and pose as prospective buyers for the looted items, so we can figure out where they are and get them.” “Rochester is the main Junkers base, but Trafalgar´s closer,” Konn proposed “due to the nature and location of the loot. We should go there first.” “Well then... let’s go.” Gabriel said. ---- The group of ships arrived at Trafalgar some time later. The base was not much of a marvel; it sat there as a few ships went in and out. Soon Nick received a hail from the base. “What´s yer damned biz here?” A gruff looking Junker barked. “We´ve heard about certain scavenged loots...” Nick said coolly. “We wish to purchase these things.” “Arr..” The Junker growled. “Land and we´ll check up with ya soon.” With that the COM link was cut. “Alright, everyone, stay alert. Even if we can’t afford the loot, we can at least get an idea of what they took. Mr. Konn, I understand you’re a freelance trader. You should be able to handle it.” Hahukum Konn said, “That’s right, I am. I should warn you though, that this project of ours could get expensive. I can easily see the Junkers charging several hundred thousand credits if they’ve found anything that looks like a weapon.” Nick opened a secure channel to his wingmen. “Gentlemen, keep a close eye on the Junkers. If they act up, we may need to leave this station in a hurry. So don’t leave the docking bay except on my direct order. Understood?” A series of voices said, “aye, sir.” Down on the station the group met in the hangar. They only received a few glances from bored Junkers who were working in the area. Nick’s squad was standing by the ships while Konn, Nikolai, Gabriel, and Nick gathered in their own circle. “In the likely event that this turns very bloody, can you all fight?” Nick inquired. “Well..” Konn said with a slight sigh. “I´d really rather not but if it is a necessity, I can.” He held up what looked like a credit stick for emphasis. Nick suspected it was an illegal sidearm of some kind, while Nikolai and Gabriel simply nodded in response. “Good now- Oh look, Junker commander or something. He´s here for us...” Nick mumbled. The Junker leader walked up to them and nodded. He had two guards with him holding laser rifles. He looked somewhat pale, and his men also looked a bit ‘off’ as though they were somewhat ill. “You folks the ones that want to look at our loot?” He said gruffly. The group nodded at this. “How much then?” Konn glanced at Nick who in turn nodded back. He began speaking. “It’d go a lot smoother for us if you’d first of all put away your weapons, and second, if we, or at least I, could look at your merchandise. I am acting on behalf of a consortium of buyers and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I bought your equipment sight unseen.” The Junker leader started fidgeting just a little, and said brusquely, “I have no time for your extended haggling, trader. We negotiate here, or we don’t negotiate at all.” “Will it be acceptable if I confer with my wingmen?” The Junker leader nodded and folded his arms across his chest, bristling. When Hahukum stepped away and joined the group, Nikolai stood close to Konn, who unconsciously put his hand on Nikolai’s chest. As Nikolai pretended to kiss Konn on the cheek, he whispered, “There’s a guy in the corner of the docking bay. I saw him fiddling with a Cardamine mask.” Konn thought he smelled a touch of alcohol, though. <i>Crud. </i> Now that Konn realized it, the “Junker leader” was showing signs of Cardamine withdrawal as were his two escorts. Somehow, Outcasts had raided Trafalgar and had the true Junkers either tied up or out the airlock. He spoke briefly to Nick, who gave an unobtrusive high sign to his men. Konn stepped back to the fake Junker leader, and said, “My wingmen unfortunately feel that I’m wasting my time. It would go a lot smoother if you would tell me why you haven’t got your Cardamine mask on.” At that, the fake leader’s jaw dropped for a second, then hardened. But before he could gesture to his sidekicks, Nick’s crew was surrounding the trio of Outcasts, weapons out. Konn had his own pocket blaster out as well Nick said, “Good. Drop your weapons, you three, and we’ll deal with you later. Now, where is the wreckage from Omega-5 that you were trying to steal from the Junkers?” “As if I would tell you, you BAF scum.” Nick’s face darkened. As he stepped forward, almost nose to nose with the Outcast, he said, “Just for that I ought to shut you up in one of my holds and let you die of Cardamine withdrawal, but I won’t. Now listen up. We want all data on those items, and the items themselves. Your data then is to be destroyed.” Nick grunted coldly. “Failure to comply and you will be terminated. What do you say?” “Allow me to say...” The Outcast wheezed “F*ck you!” Nick could almost ´sense´ Nikolai´s grin at his amusement. “Well, I guess that means no.” Nick said as he threw the Outcast into the guards knocking them to the ground. The firing began. Several workers pulled out pistols and started to open fire, while one ran and hit the alarm. “There are three exits. Split up and go through them!” Nick barked over the gunfire. “I agree.” Gabriel shouted back “I´ll take the one closest to me, I´ll go alone.” “Well, me and Nikolai can take the next if you don´t need any back-up,” Konn yelled. “Roger that, make a break for it. My men will hold the bay and take care of these mugs!” Nick yelled “Let’s go!” He made a burst for one of the doors and ran in. He entered a hall of some sort. Not far off he could hear men yelling and running, so the fight wasn´t over yet. Nick crouched down behind a cylindrical drum in the hallway and watched as two men ran by with rifles. He rolled out and started firing. “This is going to be one helluva job,” he thought. His laser bolts nailed both guards in the back; they never even saw it coming. Before Nick could smile at his triumph lasers started to whiz by him and he dove for cover. Peeking up over the top of the drum he saw further down the hall several Outcasts spraying the area with lasers. “Sh*t.. Sh*t!” He muttered to himself. He thought, “Four of them. I don´t have any grenades and I don´t want to risk anything in an enclosed corridor...Make one mistake Nick, and you could shut down power to this area of the station.” Suddenly an idea occurred to him. He checked the contents of the drum he was behind. “Salt.... Pepper,” Nick mumbled. “This may work, just hit the barrel with an overload shot and in its weakened state it should go boom.” He flipped out his gun and clipped one of the wires. Then as he pushed the drum down at the guards he held down on the trigger and released, letting an overpowered laser bolt slam into the drum, spraying salt and pepper everywhere. The soldiers fell to the ground coughing. they were easy targets for Nick then. “Won´t find that oddity in the BAF soldier guide,” Nick muttered with slight amusement. He then went back to racing down the halls until he spotted a sealed door with a computer panel next to it. Two guards were stationed by it, and they looked very nervous. Nick ducked down in the stoop of another door. “Aha! Gotcha!” Nick yelled out at the soldiers, remaining hidden. One of the guards yelled, “Who’s there?! Answer, or we shoot!” When one of the guards turned to a comm panel, Nick saw the opportunity and leapt out. His first shot hit the soldier in the back of the head, felling the man instantly. He had his gun in front of the other Outcast’s nose before the latter could fire his weapon. He could see the guard’s Cardamine mask stuffed inside the man’s jacket. He said, “Drop your blaster, and anything else that looks like a weapon, or I drill you like your buddy here.” The Outcast’s blaster clanged to the floor. “Good. What’s behind that door?” “The Junkers we captured so we could take over this base.” “Okay. Now where’s the stuff you were here to get?” “We didn’t find anything right away. We were still looking for the Omega-5 wreckage the Junkers scavenged when you got here and nailed my buddy in the head!” “Save your tears, Outcast. Now open these doors!” The man did so, revealing several very angry Junkers. Nick bellowed, “Everybody, QUIET! This Outcast’s yours. We just dispatched all the others. Now I’ll get out of your hair.” Nick shoved the Outcast at the mass of Junkers, and sauntered down the hallway, seemingly oblivious to the shrieks of pain. He got on the COM and said, “How´re we doing, guys? Any Outcasts left?” Gabriel’s voice was tinny. “Didn’t see any, and didn’t see any wreckage in the storage bays.” Konn’s voice was next. “Nikolai and I got a few, but other than that, no wreckage to be found. We’d better get out of here and head for Rochester.” “Agreed. Meet me at the docking bay, and let’s get the h*ll out of here!” ---- Luckily, the trade lanes and jump gates were clear for the most part, and the group made good time heading to Rochester base. After docking, Konn spoke to the Junker base leader, satisfying himself that the Outcasts hadn’t made it to Rochester yet. Nick had cleared the way by dropping references to a special purchase when he’d spoken to the dock control people. Konn walked with the man to a large storage vault, which, when opened, revealed a plethora of odds and ends. More hull fragments like the ones the BAF had analyzed, intact weaponry, and most importantly, the ‘black box’ flight recorders, although it was clear the Junkers didn’t know what they had, because the information on those black boxes alone was worth the expense of the Queen’s birthday, and they would have separated those black boxes out and not put them with the loot. What they did know they had was a fairly good-sized pile of smelter-grade metal alloys with unusual properties as well as weaponry nobody had ever seen before, among other things. Konn opened negotiations. “I represent a consortium of buyers who would have uses for this kind of material. I’m authorized to negotiate for everything that’s in here that came from Omega-5, as our research division would be interested in the properties of all the materials here.” “Fine. A million credits, and that’s a bargain.” “I don’t see anybody lining up behind me for this stuff. I’ll give you five hundred thousand.” “That offer insults me, and insults the generations of Junkers in my family.” “Save me your family history, sir. I hear the Outcasts aren’t too interested in formalities, if you’ve heard about what happened at Trafalgar.” “Nine hundred. I have to make a living here, you know.” “I’ll give you six hundred and fifty and that’s as high as I’m prepared to go. Half now, half when I get my reimbursement.” “If you can offer me six-fifty you can offer me seven. I’m not about to lose my shirt on this one.” “Fine. I’ll transfer three hundred and fifty to your account or the base account as soon as we get my Humpback loaded with all this. I’ll want all the scans your people made as well, plus a receipt for these items. If I don’t have that receipt the people I represent won’t credit me back and you won´t get your money.” “Stay here.” The Junker left, and shortly after, several men and antigrav lifters showed up, piling up all the looted items and transporting them to the Humpback. Once everything was accounted for, Konn took his credit stick and transferred three hundred and fifty thousand credits to the Junkers base account, and signed off on a contract to return with the remainder. Almost as an afterthought, Konn loaded up a credit stick with two thousand credits, and palmed it into the Junker’s hand as they shook on the deal. He said, “Good service gets good tips, I’d say.” With that, Konn checked that his Humpback’s hold was secure, and Nikolai was pretty well fully alert by this time. They left the docking bay, and as the crew reassembled in space for the home run back to Sprague, several Outcast ships showed up on the contact list, one ship openly hovering near the Humpback. Nick’s voice could be heard on the all-ships communications. “What do you want? I’ve been asked to escort a valuable shipment to Bretonia.” The ship in front of the Humpback said, “Precisely. This ship has something we want, and we want it now.” ----- <b>Summary: The Outcasts get to Trafalgar ahead of our intrepid crew, but surprisingly, the loot didn´t get shipped there, but instead to the Junkers main base at Rochester. Our crew hightails it there, seals the deal for the loot, and the Outcasts show up just as our men are about to vamoose. </b> Edited by - Hahukum Konn on 9/2/2005 2:55:51 PM

in your editing you missed a bit <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>His laser bolts nailed both guards in the back; they never even saw it coming. Before Nick could smile at his triumph lasers started to whiz by him and he dove for cover. Peeking up over the top of the drum he saw further down the hall several Junkers spraying the area with lasers. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> you left junkers in there instead of changing it to outcasts other than that good post, shame gabe didn´t find anyone =P hehehe

OOC: Sorry for the wait,but i was busy with school work.Its 11:00 right now so nothing speacial. tIC: Hans was sleeping in his bed when the door intercom buzzed in,&quot;Hans,I need your help !&quot; said the obvious voice of Vinny. &quot;Ja,whatever&quot; Hans said,with an annnoyed tone in his voice. Hans getting out of bed,put two Daumann Devestators in their holsters.He then put a small PDA in his pocket.Hans opened the door and met Vinny in the hangar bay.i &quot;I need you to find a man for me Hans,name is Dan Nidyl,lives on Houston.&quot; &quot;All the way to Houston !?&quot; Hans roared. &quot;Calm down,theres a shortcut mister big mean Hessian&quot; Vinny teased,who got a few mean looks from Hans´ group. In space Hans was flying with Vinny in a highly unknown nebulae. &quot;So where is this ´shortcut´ Vinny ?&quot; Hans asked. &quot;We are about 3 K´s from it&quot; Vinny replied The trip was highly uneventful,not a ship in sight. a A few minutes passed and low and behold,there was a jump hole to Texas. &quot;Shows how much of Sirius is unknown&quot; Hans said. Vinny went first and then Hans. The duo arrived behind Houston. &quot;I forgot to mention,its a one way jump hole&quot; Vinny said They landed on Houston,which was uneventful.Except for one foolish Xeno who was blasted by a Lancer missile. On the landing pad,Vinny got out of his Dromedary. &quot;Follow me&quot; Hans and Vinny rode down an elaborate elevator system,which Hans marveled. They arrived at the Smoking Horse Bar,in the lower levels of the Star-Port. When the two walked in Vinny immediatly went to the bartender. &quot;Im looking for Dan Nidyl&quot; &quot;Password?&quot; &quot;The hobo is king tonight&quot; said Vinny &quot;Right&quot; and the bartender lead them to the back alley and opened a door which lead to a small room with a computer in the wall. The bartender punched in a few numbers and four of the tiles started to rise,revealing another elevator. The bartender left and Vinny and Hans entered the contraption. As soon as they did,the elevator shot down atleast 15 floors and finally stopped. The door opened and to Hans´ amazement was an emporium of weapons,ship armor,and black market items. A man with a cowboy hat and a Texan accent aproached them. &quot;Well howdy,welcome to Nidyl´s Black Market,im Dan Nidyl.How may I help you ?&quot; said Dan &quot;Save us the act,Dan&quot; said Vinny. &quot;Straight to business !&quot; said Vinny,again Summary: V&amp;H arrive at Houston ad meet Dan Nidyl.

Ooc: sorry for the wait, hope it´s worth it... ---------------------------- Gabriel had remained very quiet the whole trip. Silently watching his squadron mates, watching their behavior, their speech, their interaction, analyzing everything he saw. He watched as Nick’s men responded to everything he said like trained dogs. He watched as Konn struggled with his desire to avoid combat in a universe of killers. He watched Nikolai drooling over men clad in the latest fashions, muscles hinting through their tight t-shirts. He noticed Nikolai’s playful flirting with Konn, and the Rhinelander’s apparent attraction towards him. “That could serve to my advantage,” he thought. The trip too had been nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing unexpected. He knew the Junkers would be in Omega five; Sprague had just served as a place to observe the rest of the group and their interactions. One thing that did surprise Gabriel was the fact Nick didn’t know about the nomads and he cursed this assumption. He let too much information slip. Now they knew he knew… He should have played ignorant, keep his defenses up. Thankfully nothing had come from it and no one had called him out on his knowledge. “What´s yer damned biz here?” he heard a Junker say over the COM system as they approached the insignificant base known as Trafalgar. “We´ve heard about certain scavenged loots...” Nick’s voice replied calmly. “We wish to purchase these things.” “Arr...” The Junker growled. “Land and we´ll check up with ya soon.” The COMs went silent. “Alright, everyone, stay alert. Even if we can’t afford the loot, we can at least get an idea of what they took. Mr. Konn, I understand you’re a freelance trader. You should be able to handle it.” Nick commanded to the group. “That’s right, I am.” Konn’s voice replied, “I should warn you though, that this project of ours could get expensive. I can easily see the Junkers charging several hundred thousand credits if they’ve found anything that looks like a weapon.” They all proceeded into the base, Gabriel took up the rear as he quickly gave the base a sweep with his scanners, something didn’t seem right. “In the likely event that this turns very bloody, can you all fight?” Nick inquired. “Well...” Konn said with hesitation in his voice, Gabriel noticed a slight change in his demeanor. “I´d really rather not but if it is a necessity, I can.” He held up what looked like a credit stick for emphasis. “That thing better be more powerful than it looks,” Gabriel thought to himself. He relaxed his mind as Shi’Xiosa took control to scan the room, he could do it far more efficiently. His vision focused on a few people at the far side of the bay, shaking slightly, their faces white. These men weren’t acting like Junkers and they didn’t look like Junkers, someone beat them to it. “Good now- Oh look, Junker commander or something. He´s here for us...” Nick mumbled. The Junker leader walked up to them and nodded. He had two guards with him holding laser rifles. These men looked like the men Gabriel had noticed further away, but their case was less extreme. Suddenly he saw one bend behind a box take a drag from a cardamine breather, failing to conceal it completely. Outcasts, that explained a lot. “You folks the ones that want to look at our loot?” He said gruffly. Konn and Nick nodded as the other BAF pilots looked on nervously. “How much then?” Konn inquired. Konn shot a look at Nick before continuing. “It’d go a lot smoother for us if you’d first of all put away your weapons, and second, if we, or at least I, could look at your merchandise. I am acting on behalf of a consortium of buyers and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I bought your equipment sight unseen.” The outcasts eyes dilated momentarily his eyebrows rising slightly, behind him the others fingered theirs guns nervously and glanced at each other trying to determine the best course of action. The leader’s face returned to its normal, albeit paled, gruff look and angrily replied, “I have no time for your extended haggling, trader. We negotiate here, or we don’t negotiate at all.” It was obvious he was getting flustered. The corner of Gabriel’s mouth lifted into a slight smile, he laughed to himself, this was going to be fun. “Will it be acceptable if I confer with my wingmen?” Konn inquired, trying to play ignorant to the mounting tension all around him. The Junker leader nodded in aggravated approval and crossed his arms the hairs brisling. Some color was returning to his face, his heart rate was increasing. He saw Nikolai approach Hahukum and he placed his hand on the trader’s chest, Gabriel noticed his fingers curl in slightly as he lifted his arm slightly as he applied pressure. As he leaned in to kiss the man on the cheek the Ta’Gue’Led agent noticed his lips move slightly. Nikolai is enjoying this too much for just telling Konn something,” he thought as he watched Nikolai’s hand slide down Konn’s chest across his abs and of his side as Konn walked past. Nikolai bit his lip lightly as he watched the trader pass, his eyes slowly sweeping down the length of his body. As Konn walked away Gabriel could tell what the flirtatious Rhinelander had told him and he watched as the shocked man approach nick to tell him the news. The BAF officer signaled his men subtly. Konn stepped back to the fake Junker leader. “What not telling me?” Gabriel thought, not knowing what to make of this sign, did Konn assume he had figured it out? Or did he simply ignore Gabriel all together? Just then he heard Konn start talking to the now flustered outcast, “My wingmen unfortunately feel that I’m wasting my time. It would go a lot smoother if you would tell me why you haven’t got your Cardamine mask on.” The man’s face went whiter than a sheet and the guard’s guns dropped slightly and they looked up, ruining their aim. The man attempted to regain his composure and motion to the men behind him. Before he could nicks men were already surrounding them, Gabriel crossed his arms across his body as he reached into his jacket with both and withdrew his pistols, leveling them at the heads of the two armed men directly in front of him. In his peripheral vision he saw Konn and nick draw their own weaponry. With that Nick said, “Good. Drop your weapons, you three, and we’ll deal with you later. Now, where is the wreckage from Omega-5 that you were trying to steal from the Junkers?” The man’s face contorted into what Gabriel could only assume to be an attempt at looking threatening. “As if I would tell you, you BAF scum.” Nick’s eyes turned into slits and he stepped towards the man, getting almost nose-to-nose with him. Nikolai’s eyes widened slightly and he looked the officer up and down in confused anticipation. “Just for that I ought to shut you up in one of my holds and let you die of Cardamine withdrawal, but I won’t,” he said to the outcast, Nikolai’s face sunk slightly. “Now listen up. We want all data on those items, and the items themselves. Your data then is to be destroyed.” Nick growled coldly. “Failure to comply and you will be terminated. What do you say?” “Allow me to say...” The Outcast wheezed, his withdrawal symptoms obviously getting worse “F*ck you!” Nikolai grinned, but for different reasons than before. “Well, I guess that means no.” Nick said throwing the Outcast into the guards knocking them to the ground. Gabriel clicked off two perfectly placed shots at some men across the bay and watched as the bolts of yellow energy slam into the bridge of their noses, the skin between their eyes fizzled slightly as they fell to the ground, their hands still on their guns strapped to their legs. The others shot the three men closest before running for shelter behind some crates close by. Gabriel ran to join them, clicking off more shots with his right hand as he rapidly closed in on the crates just left of his original location. A shower of sparks rained from a wall where a man’s head had been moments earlier, “lucky bastard” Gabriel growled under his breath as he cove behind the crates. The outcast were now a little more organized and were returning fire from cover on the other end of the bay. The BAF pilots continued to return fire from their entrenched location. Suddenly the alarm went off. One of the workers had run and hit the alarm. “There are three exits. Split up and go through them!” Nick barked over the gunfire. “I agree” Gabriel replied, ““I´ll take the one closest to me, I´ll go alone.” Without saying any more he sprinted off to a door on the wall to the right of their current location, firing shots with his left, inaccurately, focusing more on getting into the alcove of the door. He slammed into the small wall next to the door, sheltered from the gunfire thanks to the door being recessed into the wall slightly. He pressed the button to open the door with his elbow as he span to bring his guns to bear down the hallway. It was empty. He paused to check how his ammunition was looking. Both guns were almost empty; he clicked the clips out and stuck them in his ammo belt around his waist, drawing out two fresh ones. He quickly reloaded them and cocked both. Carefully, he made his way down the hallway, noticing no one. As he rounded a corner he saw a man crouching at a computer terminal, trying to rewire it to get past the security codes. He wasn’t dressed like the others and he looked strangely familiar. Gabriel noticed a strange red symbol on his arm; it looked like a “t” with an ancient cathedral behind it. The man turned towards him, “Jamison?” the man said, confused. &quot;I thought you were dead.&quot; The alarm suddenly stopped. The man was James Greir, a man he knew from his days with the Order. “James? What the hell are you doing here? Are you trying to get the equipment for the Order or something?” “Not quite” the man responded, purple and blue light shot like daggers out of the sides of his eyes, burning menacingly. He reached down for his handgun and Gabriel sidestepped around the corner he just came around, putting his back to the wall as James peppered the wall with his shots. Gabriel spun around unloading his guns at James, the yellow energy igniting the air as it converged at him. The Covenant agent moved with superhuman speed, and managed to dive out of the way of the holocaust of energy raining down on him. Parts of the wall sparked and melted where the energy from the Ta’Gue’Led pistols landed, the computer exploded in a brilliant light show as multiple shots carved through it. As the traitor went to stand he left his empty gun on the floor to save weight and sprinted down the hallway. Gabriel ran after him, flipping one of his guns and grabbing it by the barrel as he ran. Pulling it back over his shoulder he threw the gun at the fleeing man like a throwing knife. It impacted his head with a hair-curling crunch and the man fell to the ground. As Gabriel quickly converged on his target he dropped his other now useless gun and got to the wounded man right as he turned over. Leaping through the air to land a killing blow with his fist, gabriel was caught by the man’s lifted foot and was tossed over him and onto the floor further down the hallway. “Whatever you’re trying to do Jamison the Order will fail,” James snarled, blood dripping down his neck and over his shoulder. “The covenant will destroy the order, we will rule Sirius” he wiped his blood off of his neck, slinging it to the ground. “My name is Gabriel Shi’Xiosa” the now enraged Ta´Gue&quot;led agent responded, the hair on his back prickled. Yellow and orange light leapt from the sides of his eyes like blinding swords and a surge of adrenaline like nothing Gabriel had ever experienced surged through his body. James stood stunned as Gabriel leaped at him, covering ten meters in less than a second. His blood felt like it was boiling, this nomad had taken his friend, and worse they had gotten into the Order. He slammed his right hand, fingers first, right through James stomach and lifted him off the ground as his arm penetrated deeper into his corrupted body. Grabbing the man by the neck with his left hand, he crushed his victim´s windpipe as he ripped the man’s limp body one way and the nomad’s the other. The strange blue creature’s body burst out of the dead man’s stomach in a shower of blood. Gabriel continued with this motion slamming the nomad’s body into the wall to his right as he dropped the body of his former friend. Now free he formed a fist with his left hand and slammed it into the center of the nomad, its blue inerts splattering all over the hallway, the remains hanging limp on the wall where they were ingrained into the dented wall. Gabriel went back to the body of his fallen comrade. “ I know you weren’t the one in control,” he whispered. “May you live a better life now, my friend, you’ve served your time in damnation.” Gabriel walked down the hallway until he found what he was looking for, a small storage room. Fortunately the Junker bases were littered with them. He grabbed a rag off of one of the crates and cleaned himself off as best he could, and then picked up a small canister of H-Fuel before leaving. He returned to the body of his target and picked up his guns. He reloaded them with the clips from earlier and then twisted the valve of the canister. At the same moment he discharged a shot from the gun in his other hand, igniting the volatile gas. He swept it over the body of the nomad incinerating it, and then dropped it into the gaping hole in the dead man’s torso. Satisfied the evidence of the alien and his host was destroyed Gabriel proceeded to check the rest of the storage bays in the area, running into no further hostiles. Right when he left the last one on the hallway he heard Nick’s voice over the COMs. “How´re we doing, guys? Any Outcasts left?” Shi’Xiosa’s voice chimed in, “don’t tell them about James, we don’t know about what the nomad’s intentions are, or who this Covenant is. We don’t know these people in our group and telling this will force you to give up much of your past, it could endanger us both.” Gabriel chuckled quietly before responding, “Didn’t see any, and didn’t see any wreckage in the storage bays.” Konn’s voice came over the channel next. “Nikolai and I got a few, but other than that, no wreckage to be found. We’d better get out of here and head for Rochester.” “Agreed.” Nick said. “Meet me at the docking bay, and let’s get the h*ll out of here!” Gabriel returned to his Drake without incident. When he arrived he was happy to see the BAF pilots had neutralized the Outcasts in the hanger and had taken up defensive positions to guard all the doors into the place. “Whoa guys, its just me” Gabriel said cautiously holding his arms up as the pilot’s guns all trained on him. Nick Konn, and Nikolai returned moments later. After confirming everyone was there and uninjured they all climbed into their ships and begun their preflight sequences. They debriefed on the way to Rochester, but other than that the flight was uneventful. Gabriel still didn’t reveal what he had found on Trafalgar, he would leave that until they knew more. He knew it would anger them, but he wanted to get more information on the Covenant. One thing he did know, this equipment they were getting, the stuff the outcasts wanted, it was more than likely of Covenant origin, and James was at Trafalgar to cover their tracks. The deal at Rochester went quickly, and it was quickly loaded into the back of Konn’s humpback. As they emerged into space and approached the trade lane a contingent of outcast ships appeared on the contacts screen. “What do you want? Nick said on the open channel. “I’ve been asked to escort a valuable shipment to Bretonia.” The ship that stopped right in front of the humpback replied, “Precisely. This ship has something we want, and we want it now.” “I’m sorry sir,” nick responded mockingly, orders are orders” with that the Bretonians opened fire on the outcasts. Konn slammed his throttle to full and engaged the thrusters shooting over the dazed outcasts. Gabriel powered up his engines and jumped into the fray. Four outcast ships exploded before the others realized their folly and began to engage their opponents. The outcasts closed in on a single crusader and unleashed a withering amount of fire. “This old fish cant take much more Sir” the pilot said, I have to bail” with that the ship erupted into flames. Nick tractored the man’s escape pod in and shortly after the last outcast was vaporized as he tried to escape. “Alright everyone stay frosty,” Nick said over the group channel. “We’ll need to lay low for a while, or at least get out of outcast territory, anyone have any ideas?&quot; <b>summary: the recent events according to gabriel, he runs into an old friend from the Order who´s now part of the Covenant and dispaches him </b> ooc: sorry everyone if you thought this was an update, I had to fix a few things I was unhappy with and edit the ending. Edited by - [GR_Fallen_Angel on 9/7/2005 4:26:58 PM Edited by - [GR_Fallen_Angel on 9/12/2005 1:10:38 PM

Stefan was thrown out of the jump gate and into the Stuttgart system. He put the plugs back in their places and initiated the docking sequence with the trade lane to Planet Stuttgart. He leaned back into the chair and enjoyed the beautiful sight of Stuttgart. He listened to the wump-wump sound as he was progressing towards the planet. Suddenly he was thrown out into space and knew that the trade lane had been disrupted. Below him were three Hessian ships flying towards him. ‘’Ok hand over the loot! NOW! The Hessian yelled over the COM.’’ ‘’Sure, take it. I don’t need it anyway, he responded and jettisoned 12 loads of oxygen.’’ ‘’Geez, I expected a fight, whatever. The Hessian tractored in the loot and flew away with his wingmen after him.’’ Damn Hessians, flying around and robbing us small people, Stefan muttered and re-entered the trade lane to Planet Stuttgart. ‘’Robbing decent people who have never done anything bad to them. Just to fill their pockets so full of credit sticks that their pants fall of, and the police force is too corrupt to do anything. They should be sent to Alaska or the Westerwald’’, he said to himself as he arrived to Planet Stuttgart. ‘’This is Zoners zeta nine dash four. I am requesting to land.’’ ‘’Understood. Your request to land is granted please proceed to land’’. The traffic around the planet was febrile. Mostly military and police ships. But one could also see the Republican and occasional Orbital Spa and Cruise transports. His ship flew through the massive rings and into the clouds. As he descended the silhouettes of the main city on the planet became clearer. If there was one thing that could make Stefan happier then normal, it was beautiful environments; planet Stuttgart was one of those. Miles and miles of forests and farmland, he just couldn’t get enough of it. The architecture was nice too, but not as much as the surroundings. He unplugged the wire and climbed out of the ship, heading for the bar. He stepped into the bar and looked around for Walter. He saw him sitting in the corner, looking bored and tired. He walked up to him as sat down beside him. ‘’Hi Walter, how are things?’’ he said and grinned. Walter muttered. ‘’Nothing special, and you?’’ ‘’Well fine, except for my little encounter with some Hessians whom demanded my oxygen, which I gave up without resistance everything is splendid.’’ ‘’Good for you, I’m tired. I haven’t slept for three days. And I still have to ship this bloody scrap metal to Dortmund. You’re really lucky you know that?’’ ‘’Far from, if you would know what I’ve gone through you wouldn’t call me lucky.’’ ‘’Please tell me your story then.’’ ‘’Not here, not now.’’ ‘’Come on, we’re brothers. And we’re speaking in Bretonian. Who would understand us.?’’ ‘’The government has got spies everywhere. I wouldn’t want to risk our lives just because of that tale. Which is a damn painful one too.’’ ‘’Ok, so you’re sitting at your optronic as usual?’’ ‘’Nah, forest walks always do good to your health, but let’s go somewhere else. Now that I’ve got some credits.’’ ‘’Yeah, why not.’’ ‘’Come on then.’’ Down on the streets they walked into some place called ‘’Herr Bauer’s’’. The second largest restaurant chain in Rheinland, giving you high quality dinners and meals for a cheap price. They sat down at a corner table. ‘’So where have you been all the time?’’ Walter asked. ‘’I’ve been making a Gold run from the Battleship Hood to Freeport 9. Seems like the Corsairs know how to live good.’’ Stefan calmly replied. ‘’How much did you get?’’ ‘’670 000 credits’’ he replied with a slight smirk on his face. The waitress came over with the menu to them. They replied with ‘’Danke’’ and she left in a hurry. ‘’You lucky bastard! While I have to ship Beryllium from Java Station to Kensington you are making yourself a fortune on a bloody Gold run, while I only make 50 000 credits a month. And pirates don’t even bother you. Damn, sometimes I really envy you.’’ ‘’I told you that you should be a Zoner. You didn’t listen. Blame yourself’’ ‘’Nah, your right.’’ ‘’At least you have a caring family, wile I have to hold up in that bunker for a house’’. ‘’That’s right’’ Walter said with a smile. ‘’Have you chosen anything yet?’’ Stefan said and looked up from the menu. ‘’Not yet, you then?’’ ‘’I’ll take a vegetable soup and a schnitzel.’’ ‘’Hmm… that Cordon Bleu sounds nice. I’ll have it.’’ ‘’Alright, now we just have to wait for the waitress to come.’’ They both put down the menus on the table and Stefan looked around a bit. The walls were covered with some type of dark wood with beautifully carved figures and patterns. Light flowed in from the giant windows and the white-blue diamond squared ceiling. It was a cosy, hospitable feeling that permeated the whole place. Typical Rheinland style. The waitress who came and asked if they have chosen anything yet interrupted Stefan. ‘’Was wollen ihr nehmen?’’ the waitress asked. ‘’Ja, ich nehme ein Gemüsesuppe und ein Portion Schnitzel. Und der junge Mann hier nimmt ein Cordon bleu.’’ ‘’Das macht 2965,85 Mark.’’ ’’Na gut.’’ Stefan pulled out a credit stick from his pocket and gave it to her. ‘’Eine Momentum.‘’ the waitress then rushed away and came back a few minutes later with a plate filled with all the goodies they have ordered. ‘’Vielen Dank’’ Stefan said as they both started to eat from their plates. ‘’Isn’t it interesting, that something this old has survived so long?’’ Walter wondered. ‘’Indeed it is. And it is tasty too. Guess we Humans aren’t so dumb after all, taking care of all the good things we’ve come up with’’ Stefan replied. ‘’And music too. I don’t know when we came up with that stuff’’ ‘’You see. That’s the problem with humans today. We don’t care about all the things we came up with ages ago. We are mostly only interested in the new, hip things that people come up with today. Archaeologists are an exception though.’’ Stefan continued complaining. ‘’ People are forgetting things faster than I eat beans. Have you ever been to the bar at the Manhattan landing pad? You know that music? Nobody knows the origin of it nowadays. Only a few people, whose sites are very hard to find.’’ ‘’Stefan please, stop complaining about people. I mean, who can even remember anything that happened before the war?’’ Walter asked. ‘’You know, there are people in today’s world that don’t even have a hint about how we got here. They don’t know about the Sol War! And there is another problem. We wage all these horrid wars for our petty, selfish reasons, when we instead should unite. And these wars just make us forget even more.’’ ‘’Stefan please stop.’’ ‘’Ah, all right. But I am right I tell you. ‘’Yes but let’s talk about something else now, please.’’ ‘’Fine, what do you want to talk about?’’ ‘’How is it going home in New Berlin? Basic things.’’ ‘’Well it’s really nothing special going on there, just the usual. Forest walks and learning for me that is. Otherwise it’s the occasional Reichstag fights, which are very fun to look at.’’ ‘’How do you watch a fight in the Reichstag?’’ ‘’In the Reichstag there are security cameras; these cameras are controlled by an optronic that’s inside the building, and has Internet connection. Hack into the optronic, and take control of the cameras. And voila! You’ve got a gladiator fight in the Reichstag from first parquet. Popcorn included.’’ Walter laughed, ‘’I would really like to see one of those fights.’’ ‘’Then I’ll upload them into my neural net and send them to you. It’s quite hilarious.’’ Stefan said and chuckled. ‘’Ok thanks, I’ll watch them at home.’’ ‘’Good then, well anything you know that I don’t?’’ ‘’Heard about Omega-5?’’ ‘’You mean that rocky war-torn system? Yes, I’ve even been there, though that was a long time ago. What’s with it?’’ ‘’I heard the news on Stokes Smelter. BMM ordered one of their freighters from Douglas Station to go through there to get to Omega-41. The crew saw Cadiz Station full of holes with human bodies floating around in the air. Scrap metal from derelict fighter were also found in the Hammen Hole and only a few mines remained in the system, which is now filled with Junkers collecting the remains. Another source says that the Red Hessian’s Ronneburg Base was torn to pieces. Nobody knows who did it.’’ Stefan was as rigid as a statue. Paralysed with horror. ‘’Stefan? Are you all right?’’ Walter wondered. Stefan didn’t move. ‘’Hello, anybody there?’’ he waved his hand in front of Stefan. ‘’Hello! Stefan wake up!’’ Again he didn’t move. Walter slapped him in the face. ‘’Ouch! Hey, what was that good for!’’ Stefan asked, all red in his face. ‘’You didn’t respond to anything. I tried to wake you up every way possible. Oh, and you haven’t eaten up you meal yet.’’ ‘’That’s horrid news. Who would or could do anything like that? At least two million people must have died there! There is no force in the entire sector powerful enough to commit such genocide.’’ ‘’Come on, it’s Corsairs. Who wouldn’t want to wipe them out? Honestly I don’t really care. They’ve been plaguing us Bretonians long enough. I think they deserved it.’’ ‘’Bloody hell they did! Nobody deserves a death like that! Corsair, Bretonian, Zoner, Hessian, it doesn’t matter. They’re humans and that’s what counts!’’ ‘’Ok, you’re right. I’m sorry brother. But I have more bad news for you.’’ ‘’What?’’ ‘’Cali Base in Tau-23 has been wiped out too.’’ ‘’What did you say?!’’ ‘’I said that Cali base in Tau-23 is gone, destroyed.’’ A tear ran down Stefan’s cheek. ‘’Ey, what is it?’’ ‘’It’s unbelievable.’’ Tears flowed down his cheeks. ‘’I knew people on that base, even some close ones.’’ ‘’You knew Outcasts?!’’ ‘’Yes. Understanding and helpful they were. And now they’re all gone.’’ ‘’Understanding? I’ll believe that when humans grow wings.’’ Stefan continued crying and Walter started to feel bad. ‘’Hey, calm down now brother, I’m sure there are some people that survived. You’ll see them again, I promise.’’ ‘’You think so?’’ Stefan said between the tears. ‘’Sure, there are always survivors.’’ Stefan wiped away the tears from his face and carried on eating his Schnitzel. ‘’Right, I’ll go out to Omega-5 and see if I can pick up any survivors. There has to be at least one poor pilot stuck in his ship out there.’’ ‘’Well done.’’ Walter sighed.’’ Well, I have to go. My convoy is of to Bonn and I don’t want my mates out there to get angry on me. Auf Wiedersehen, Bruder.’’ ’’Auf Wiedersehen.’’ Walter walked out of the restaurant. Stefan put his knife and fork beside each other and left. Outside planet Stuttgart Stefan saw Walter’s convoy head of towards the Neu Berlin system. He himself took the trade lane to Freiburg and from there to the Omega-7 gate. As he exited the trade lane he saw only one large train take the trade land to Freiburg. He initiated the docking sequence with the docking and watched as the gigantic ‘’door’’ opened up. He was pushed back into his seat as he was sucked into the jump tunnel. On the other side he looked around and found himself in a familiar environment. ”Här har inte hänt mycket sedan sist jag var här.” Stefan said to himself and docked with the trade land to Freistadt. Minutes later he found himself in a clear zone around Freistadt. He flew the ship further and turned on the red docking lights as if the ship was part of himself. <b>Summary: Stefan travel to Planet Stuttgart to met his little brother Walter. They go to a restaurant and start talking about event new and old. Stefan finds out of the Omega-5 massacre and decides to revisit the system. He goes to Freistadt in Omega-7 to load up his cargo hold with stuff if Junkers eventually should threaten him. </b>

“I’m sorry, sir”, Nikolai breathed into the intercom, “but orders are orders!” and the freighter, spinning wildly, pointed Nikolai’s six turrets straight towards the leader of the Outcasts that blocked their path. Six streams of golden-green light sped from the tips of Konn’s guns towards the glass shield of the man’s Stilleto, breaking the transparent material into a thousand shards and leaving his ship dead in space as air rushed from the cockpit outward and his body tumbled forward into the vacuum. The five remaining, all Stilettos, were not so slow to react as the Junkers in Omega-5. Though Urran shot through the crowd, decimating another before him, and Warren’s guard mobilized into their deadly formations, the Outcast ships had already responded and were unleashing a torrent of fire on one of the fish-like Crusaders even as it attempted to dodge out of the way. Konn weaved the humpback through the fray, attempting to throw in as many shots as possible. One Stiletto began to trail Warren’s ship. Turing upwards and barrel-rolling the fish through space, he dodged its deadly fire, proving impossible to catch. The man tailing the Major, however, seemed to prove idiotically obstinate, desperately firing off shots at places where Warren had been seconds before and vainly tailing it. Taking advantage of the man’s obsession, Konn spun the ship so that Nikolai faced the Outcast in the distance. He discharged the flame of the Humpback’s guns towards the madman’s ship, burning its shield away and decimating the hull. Fire protruded from its underbelly, and the pilot, shocked, lost control. Warren turned his ship then, concentrating the strength of his guns on the momentarily distracted ship. It burst into flames and then exploded, in powerful brilliance—crashing into one of the Crusaders whose shield had been decimated by another Outcast. The Bretonian’s ship’s hull was knocked down irreparably, its pilot bailing. In the distance, Nikolai could see two explosions as Outcast ships rammed each other, Gabriel’s drake pulling away nanoseconds before the strike. “That’s the last of them,” Urran said. “Very well. Switch to a secure channel…. Let’s head back to New London; we need rest and food, and to hand these over to a BAF lab.” Urran mumbled something in response, but his reply was lost in the whirr of cruise engines as the party began to move across the junk-ridden darkness of New York. Konn turned back to Nikolai. “I need to check in with Rob. Keep the singing to a minimum, ok?” Nikolai smiled, producing his bottle of whisky. “Course.” Konn turned to the intercom, dialing in a comm code. “Rob? Are you there?” There was silence for a few moments, then: “Konn! Hey! How are you? How’s the drunk?” Konn shot a glance over his shoulder at the Rhinelander and his whisky. “Nikolai’s turning out fine. A bit of an interesting character, but he’s quite a good fighter. I’ve got some news for you…” Konn quickly relayed the story of their trek to Omega-5, the corpses suspended in space there, floating among the debris, and the sojourn to retrieve the remains of the battle from the Junkers. “What bothers me is the Outcast involvement in this. They’re on good terms with the Junkers. Why would they hijack a base?” Rob’s voice sounded concern. “Perhaps we could assume they’re behind the attack?” “A bit early, but maybe…Any results on those weapons you found?” “Nothing we’ve seen. The black box was analyzed, though…from what we can decipher, it seems that Juan was involved. And there’s tensions brewing between him and Mason.” There was silence for a moment. Konn spoke up again: “So, success in the mystery system? What happened?” “What? Oh, the usual…breaking into ancient temples, attacked by stone behemoths and wild apemen alike, captured by mutant secret societies…” Konn was astounded. “What in the name of Sirius were you DOING?” “Rob, we’ve got 4 hostiles inbound!” Konn heard over the intercom. “Sh*t! Konn, before I go: there’s an organization operating Sirius, I think against Mason, called the Ta’Gue’Led—formed of nomad-possessed humans. They told us to watch out for one of their agents operating in Sirius, named Gabriel. Look out for him. And head to Los Angeles, we’ll meet you there. Take care.” Rob’s voice died as the intercom shut off. Konn felt suddenly fearful. What if Urran was this Sirius operative? How could they trust him? Was this group truly working against Mason? Whatever the answer, he needed to tell Warren and Nikolai. “Major”, he said into his comm, “my partner tells me that we need to head to Los Angeles. I’m turning around.” There was silence for a moment, then: “Very well. We’ll follow.” “Los Angeles?!” griped Nikolai. “F*ck, that planet’s so ugly my eyes burn!” ************************************************************************************************ “God, I am bloody exhausted.” Nikolai rose from the floor where he had been doing pushups. “How you handle all this flying I’ll never be able to tell.” He crossed the room, lying down on Konn’s mattress. The flight had been entirely without incident, with only his whisky to wash away the tedium. And bloody hell, the planet was ugly. “Comes with the territory of being a freelance trader. But even so, I’m a bit tired myself,” Konn sighed, stifling a yawn. Nikolai was settling into the pillows, finally getting a chance to sleep without his fist bopping the man’s head. His near-naked body glowed softly in the candlelight, his face even more beautiful. Konn sighed and quietly, cautiously, settled by the sleeping man in the bed, a thrill coursing through his body at the sensation. His eyes closed as he breathed in Nikolai’s strong musk, and he settled into the depths of dream… A sudden touch lifted him out of the peace he was nestling into. Nikolai turned over towards him, still awake, and smiling. His eyes roamed over the thin, softly rippled body of the man beside him, gazing at him with sweet, wanting eyes. His hand, moving like silk over Konn’s soft skin, slowly felt the other man’s body as it shone in the soft light, then moved down, resting just above his crotch. Only a hint of whisky laced the breath of the man whose lips brushed for one sweet, short moment against Konn’s cheek, seconds before Nikolai’s tongue dived into the other’s mouth, intertwining with his, tasting his mouth, sensing the soft flesh. His hips, the pants sinking lower around them and hovering for a moment above his massive bulge before dropping entirely, gyrated over the smooth man beneath him. A hand cupped the back of his head, another tracing its way down his rippled abdomen, as Konn kissed back with a sudden ferocity that almost scared Nikolai. Both gave in entirely to the melodies of pleasure as instinct took hold and tenderness gave way to absolute passion. ---- <b>SUMMARY: The Outcast battle, edited and retold, since FA’s description of it blows goat. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> The Ta’Gue’Led exposed to Konn, who makes a point to tell Nikolai and Warren that Gabriel is possibly an agent (he doesn’t plan on telling Gabriel, though). And a bit of passion… </b> Edited by - Wilde on 9/18/2005 3:22:14 PM

OOC- As Code and Konn can attest to, I´ve been having transfer issues with this update, yet I finally got those worked out and here is my next bit, overdue by a week or two. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> IC- Jake Talon sat at the table in the smaller conference center on Toledo, anxiously awaiting his upcoming meeting with his new CO, General Kress. This would be his final meeting before he departed on his new mission. It had been one day since he had met with the high brass of the Order. He had spent the last day relaxing and enjoying the few recreational opportunities at the base. He had visited the range several times, and had spent hours in the bar, chatting with the bartender, a friend of his, and various other Order members, from ensigns to generals. Kress had talked with him there for a few minutes, as well. They had talked lightly, but that was when Kress had set up this meeting today. Jake assumed that it would be his final briefing, but life in the Order was unpredictable at best, and it could be about anything. At that moment, Kress walked into the room. He had hardly changed from the man that Jake had seen on the Order videos depicting Kress and the other heroes of the Nomad Incursions. Kress was fairly tall, with a mat of blond hair, and he wore his trademark jacket. He sat down across from Jake, and spoke in that smooth voice of his. “Colonel Talon, good to see you today.” “A pleasure, sir,” Talon replied. “Before you leave, I want to discuss a last bit about your assignment.” “Yes, sir.” “I know some about that video you showed the high command yesterday. I got my hands on it a few weeks back, and I have studied and researched it extensively. I will transfer my research to your neural net before you leave.” “Thank you, sir.” “Now, this ‘Covenant’ is a order that wants to help Sirius. It wants to bring order and control to us, replacing the chaos we have now. And these people you have tracked: Tanya Ramirez and Rob Schaefer, are trying to stop them. That is why I think, and I have Orillion’s support on this, that they should be taken out if they begin to pose much more of a threat to this ‘Covenant’.” “Sir, this ‘Covenant’ sounds like something the Order would be trying to stop, not assist.” “Well, Orillion and myself think that we should let this group grow so we can see which direction they are headed. In time, we may have to destroy them.” Jake did not agree with this at all. If this group was allowed to grow and prosper the way Kress was describing, the Order would not be able to stop it once it’s goals were clear. But he would play along for now. “Yes, sir,” he replied. “So do we understand each other? You are not to disrupt the actions of the Covenant in any way, and be ready to kill Ramirez and Schaefer at any point.” “Yes, sir.” “Excellent, I am glad we understand each other. You are dismissed.” Jake stood up, and walked out of the room, barely able to contain his intense dislike of General Kress. ******************************************* Jake made a beeline for the mechanic’s hanger, where the excellent Order head mechanic was working on his fighter. The mechanic, “Pop” Williams, was a great man, and an even better mechanic. Jake had to admit that he was anxious to see what new goodies had been added to his ship for the new mission. When he arrived, he saw Pop over by his ship. The ship looked better than it had in ages, with a new paint job and a good cleaning. Jake walked over to Pop, who was busy working on a side panel. Pop whirled when he detected Jake behind him, and relaxed when he saw that it was Jake. Pop was a tough old man, who used to be an engineer for the Liberty Navy back before the Nomad Incursions. When the Nomads overran Liberty, he had left his job and gone to the Order. Once in the Order, he had been one of the chief designers of the Anubis fighter, and he had custom built this fighter for Jake when he made Colonel. “Ah, Jake,” Pop said. “How good to see you. The ship is just about ready for you, just putting the thing back together so you can fly it again.” He laughed. “Anyway, I suppose you’re wondering what I’ve changed. Well, the biggest thing is that I’ve given you new weapons, the Death’s Hands Mark VI’s, which are superior to the last version because they are more powerful. Also, I upgraded your shield, and gave you a better thruster. Plus, I upped the power of your scanner, and upgraded your computer systems, so you can hack better on the go. Lastly, I added a little launcher back here,” he gestured to the Defender’s tail. “There is a hidden launcher back there, with my newest invention, the disrupter mine. The disrupter mine can be launched at a trailing ship, and it gives off a huge ion pulse that disrupts the systems of any ship within five hundred meters of its detonation. Now, the amazing thing about this is that it also disrupts the systems that guide a ship through a jump and keep it steady. So, if a ship was chasing you though a jump gate or hole, you could drop one of these babies behind you and…” “They fall right out of the jump tunnel into unknown space with no systems. You’re getting more cruel every day, Pop, but more ingenious at the same time.” “I’ll take that as a compliment. So, are you gonna go or what?” “Yeah, I am. Pop, you’re the best.” “Tell me something I don’t know,” he replied in a sarcastic tone. “Good luck to ‘ya!” Jake climbed into the cockpit and soared skyward, above the icy frost and snow of Toledo, hoping he would be able to find Rob and Tanya again without too much trouble. He decided to head back to Liberty. He could check up with his friends in the LSF there, and see if he could pick up any leads as to the whereabouts of Rob and his beautiful sidekick. <b>Summary: Jake gets final briefing from Kress. He leaves Toledo in search of Rob and company, but not before visiting his mechanic to get some upgrades. </b> Edited by - ww2jacob on 9/21/2005 8:47:54 PM

Hahukum Konn woke up to an odd feeling: he was in bed with another man. As wakefulness slowly returned, his perceptions widened and he registered that he was snuggled quite comfortably against Nikolai. <i>Holy… </i> Konn’s eyes snapped wide open, and he shivered as the implications of being naked in bed with Nikolai went through his mind. <i>Did we…? </i> went through Konn’s mind, to be answered with the faint taste of whiskey on his tongue. <i>Oh wow, oh sh*t. We did </i> Konn’s morning mental fuzziness snapped into focus, and he hastily unraveled himself from Nikolai’s arms. He headed to the bathroom and turned on the shower. As the water cascaded down, Konn’s mind began flashing back to the dreamlike events of the night before. <i>Jeez, we just let go and did everything. What the blazes am I <b>doing </b>?! </i> Konn shook as he remembered, with sudden clarity, the intenseness of the previous night. He remembered Nikolai doing things with him that he hadn’t done in years, and yet for all the sudden uncertainty and astonishment at his own lack of caution, Hahukum had to admit…. Nikolai was good . Very good. He smirked to himself as he decided letting loose once in a while wouldn’t kill him, as long as he didn’t do it too often. But there were still more questions and not a lot of answers. What did it mean? Why? What now? And, most importantly, Konn thought, <i>how should I act around him? </i> The rest of the morning ritual was completed quickly. Konn wrapped a towel around himself, stepped out into the hotel room, snagged some clothes, then whipped back into the bathroom so he could finish dressing and make sure he looked okay in the mirror. That done, he stepped back out and noticed Nikolai was still sleeping. <i>Now, wake him up or let him sleep? </i> They might have to get an early start, so he decided to wake Nikolai up. He hesitated, then grasped the other man’s shoulder. The feeling of warm flesh was slightly off-putting, but he ignored that as Nikolai’s eyes fluttered open. “Dressed already? Are you running out on me?” Nikolai’s eyes twinkled, and he smirked, disarmingly. “No, I’m not. But we may need to get an early start, and… um, we need to talk. But after your shower.” Nikolai got out of bed, and without a word, entered the bathroom. Konn turned on the holovision, but barely heard a word in ten as he kept getting wrapped up in what to say and how to say it. After a length of time that could have been five minutes or thirty, Nikolai stepped out of the shower. He got dressed, killed the holovision, and sat on the bed next to Konn. “All right, out with it. It’s about last night, isn’t it?” “Yes. Look, I normally don’t rush into things like this. It’s still a bit odd to have been so… intimate with you so quickly.” Nikolai sat up and said, “Aw, sh*t, is this the ‘let’s be friends now’ talk? F*ck that. This isn’t fair.” <i>Oh, crud. </i> His stomach clenched. “No! I… didn’t mean it that way.” He gently put his hand on Nikolai’s chest and pressed slightly. The latter lay back on the bed, relaxing. “I like you, I don’t know why, but I do. This is just unusual for me, and I’m trying to explain that I’m not sure what I should do or say or… even feel. When I was with Derek, it took some time – a year, I think – before we even had a room to ourselves. So we got to know each other well in other ways first, <i>before </i> we got intimate. Here, I’m almost going the other way ‘round. You see?” Nikolai seemed somewhat mollified, but still a bit upset. “So, what do you want me to say? ‘I’m sorry, dear Konn, we shouldn’t have gone to bed with each other last night’? As I recall you enjoyed it as much as I did.” He sighed. “This feels a bit too much like you want me to dance to your tune.” Hahukum sighed in his turn, and rubbed his forehead. <i>How can something so simple get so complicated? </i> He knew he was attracted to the devil-may-care aspect of Nikolai’s personality, but along with that went things he hadn’t been completely prepared for. “Look, I liked it – a lot – last night. I’m not ashamed of that. But… can I just have some time to sort all this out in my mind? Our personalities are very different. I hold back, you go forward. I inspect and analyze, you go and act. At different times how one of us handles a situation has worked out well for that situation, like when we got the drop on that Junker in Omega-5; that was all you.” Konn grinned. “It was all me when I managed to negotiate with the <i>real </i> Junker at Rochester.” Nikolai just smirked and said, “Fine, you take your time and figure yourself out. Yeah, I like you too, but don’t think that means you can start flaking out on me; I’ll cut my losses and take a freighter back to Rheinland if I have to.” He ruffled Konn’s hair, and then stood up. Konn stood up, and still nervous, tripped and fell against the bedside table, and would have hit the floor but for Nikolai’s strong hands holding him up. The two looked into each others’ eyes for a long moment, only to have the connection broken when the videophone beeped. They walked to the videophone, and Hahukum hit the receive button. “Hello?” “Hey, Konn. It’s Rob. Meet us in the L.A. bar.” ----- <b>Summary: The morning after. Konn angst put on hold as the group meets. </b> OOC: Codename or anyone, let me know if it´s supposed to be someone else paging the duo. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Edited by - Hahukum Konn on 9/25/2005 6:17:04 PM

ooc: well, sorry about the long wait, i guess that is what a full-time job and going to school does to you. hope this fits in. IC: The beak of the Liberty Battleship seemed poised to peck at any unwanted visitors as the small Startracker angled in on an approach vector. ´Battleship Rio Grande, this is Startracker J-01-26, requesting permission to dock.´ ´Startracker J-01-26, we read you, you are free to dock in hanger one, landing pad 12.´ ´Roger that Grande.´ The Startracker glided smoothly to her designated berth inside the Battleship. As the pilot shut down the systems of the ship as the landing pad lowered into the floor into a storage pad; and waiting for the ship and pilot was a detachment of five LSF soldiers and one officer. Smiling, the pilot leapt out of the ship and approached the gang of men. “Wow! A party just for me! You´re so nice to me, you know that, right Linus?” The confused look on the soldiers’ faces made both the pilot and officer burst into laughter. “Mac, its been a long time since I´ve seen you. But what are you doing in that?” he said indicating the ship behind them as they walked towards each other to embrace. ´We read your ship as a Xenos ship´ Still laughing as he pulled away from the hug “Don´t you remember were I was last posted?” Mackenzie continued after seeing the confused look on Linus´ face. “I was deep covert ops in with the Xenos, and what would have been the point trying to act as one of them if you seemed better then them, so I was outfitted as one of them.” Mackenzie explained. By this point the soldiers had left them, and they had reached an elevator that would take them to the bridge. During the ride up, they discussed about the military build up on the borders of Liberty, including Colorado. During the ride, Mackenzie´s neural net buzzed, telling someone was trying to get into contact with him ´One moment Linus, Mackenzie here´ “Mackenzie, its Edwards. I see that you are in Colorado, and I will be in system momentarily. Where can I meet you?” The voice of Jake Edwards hissed over his neural net. “Hey Jake, I am on the Rio Grande right now, I will meet you in the hanger bay.” “See you in ten.” Mackenzie turned to Linus “Linus, I will be getting off at the next stop, I need to meet someone in the hanger bay, tell John that a Liberty Defender will be approaching soon, let it dock as quickly as possible. I think that something’s up.” Linus nodded and continued up to the bridge, while Mackenzie caught a lift to the docking bay.

OOC: No problem. It´s much better now, if I may say so. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Now, any chance I could get you to answer the question or two I asked? ...Nevermind. Got the e-mail. Edited by - Codename on 9/29/2005 6:51:19 AM

<i>Who the hell is this Juan guy anyway? </i> Rob wondered, as he had been for quite some time, when he dropped down from the Sabre and onto the cold metal deck of Freeport 2. He left Tanya in the cockpit doing the final post-landing checks. <i>Could Tanya be thinking about the same person? </i> That question had a potentially devastating answer. When he heard Tanya hop out onto the deck, Rob looked up from retrieving his things from the hold. He raised his shades and scrutinized the young woman. <i>Who are you really? What aren´t you telling me? </i> There was much about Tanya that was still mystery to Rob, and this latest incident served to drive that point home. “Is there something you want to say?” Tanya asked, catching Rob´s gaze with her green eyes and holding it fast. “I´m going to get a room and clean up. I suggest you do the same.” Rob said shortly. He shouldered a small pack and strode out of the hangar. - - - - After quickly arranging for some short-term accommodation with the quartermaster, a rather decrepit-looking old man, Rob headed to his assigned room for a much needed wash and rest. Unfortunately for Rob, those luxuries were not to be immediately attainable. As he walked down the corridor, Rob began to get the feeling that he was being followed. Rob pulled his shades off and pretended to wipe some dust off with his poor excuse for a shirt. By angling the lenses properly Rob was able to catch a glimpse of two grey-and-brown suited Xenos walking behind him. They didn´t seem interested in Rob though; it looked like they were just looking for a room. Rob sighed softly, relieved. The relief quickly dissolved as Rob and the two Xenos found themselves stopped at the same door. “Uh, fellas?” Rob turned to the two men, “This is my room.” “No it isn´t.” One of the Xenos said. “Yeah, see?” The other Xeno pulled a key out of his pocket. On it was the number that matched the one on the door. Rob pulled out his own key, looked at it, and held it up to the Xenos. It bore the same number. “Looks like the geriatric wonder back there messed something up.” “Looks like it,” said the one Xeno. “Too bad for you,” said the other. “Oh, come on guys.” Rob said, feeling rather dejected. “Can´t you tell I´ve had a rough time? Cut me a break already.” “No, I don´t think so.” Rob scowled. “I was here first.” The Xenos looked at each other briefly, then at Rob. “There are two of us,” one said. “And we´re bigger than you,” added the second. Rob´s scowl deepened. “You boys don´t want to be fighting me.” “We don´t?” “We want our room though. “And you are in our way.” “You don´t look so hot either.” “Just cut your losses now, buddy. “We won´t tell anybody.” “Oh, for f*cks sake! Do you really think I´m going to let myself be pushed around by a bunch of two-bit pirates like you? No way. No f*cking way. Not after all I´ve been through.” Rob dropped his pack to the floor and raised his fists. His injured body protested the sudden motion, and Rob winced. The Xenos laughed. “Last mistake you´ll ever make. I hope you didn´t come alone, ´cause somebody´ll have to clean up once we´ve smeared you all over the deck.” Rob smiled grimly. “Shut up and bring it.” The Xenos smiled and moved in, one aiming high, while the other launched himself at Rob´s midsection. Rob leapt forward, directly into the path of the Xeno trying to tackle him. He reached over the man´s back and grabbed the Xeno by the waist of his pants. Using the pirate´s own momentum, Rob swung the man into the air and, rolling backwards, sent him flying into the wall. He hit with a crunch and fell to the floor. The other Xeno, having expected Rob to dodge his counterpart, ended up hitting nothing but air with his first punch. Rob rolled sideways and flung his arms around the bewildered pirate´s legs. The man swayed and tried to keep his balance. Rob tightened his grip on the man´s legs and pulled them into his chest and surged forward again. With a yelp the Xeno toppled to the floor. Rob was on him in a second, raining punishing blows onto his face and chest. The Xeno tried in vain to fight back and defend himself, but it was no use. “Stop, please!” The pirate cried out, covering his face as best he could. Rob ceased his assault and stood. The whimpering man curled into fetal position. “I told you that you didn´t want to fight me. Go on, get outta here.” Rob´s victims groaned and struggled to get to their feet. “Oh. One thing before you go,” Rob said as he scooped up his pack. “I´ll take that other key you have.” The Xeno Rob had thrown into the wall grimaced as he reached into his pocket. Quick as a flash, Rob drew his two pistols and pointed them at his foes. With a flick of his thumb, he set the energy levels to “stun” and pumped a few rounds into the pirates. “Nice try boys.” Rob leaned down and saw that, sure enough, the Xeno had been holding a crude slugthrower. He fished around in the unconscious man´s other pockets until his fingers closed around the key. “That´s better.” Rob stood once more, glanced up and down the corridor and opened the door to his room. He stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and locked it. The room was by no means luxurious. The walls were bare metal, and other than the bed, the room was empty. Nevertheless, Rob was happy. The room appeared to be clean, and the bed wasn´t obviously damaged. The events of the past few days had ruined a number of the devices on Rob´s toolbelt, including his bug jammer. Rob rummaged through his pack momentarily and withdrew a replacement. He jacked it in to the proper slot and activated it. Before anything else, there was a lot of information to review. Rob figured he might as well get comfortable. He quickly slipped out of his dirty clothes and shoved them into the station´s garbage chute. Propping himself up against some pillows, and stretching out on the bed - it was firm, not hard, and Rob was pleased that no springs dug into his back - Rob set about going over the new information he had been given. First came the information from the Ta´Gue´Led about the artifact. Rob and Tanya had looked it over in detail on their trip from the Omicrons to Bering, but Rob wanted to skim it one more time just to ensure that he hadn´t missed anything important. There wasn´t much to look through. The mysterious faction had given the location of the artifact. Once again, it was housed in a massive pyramid. Unlike on Primus, however, this pyramid was located deep at the bottom of a massive trench that ran for hundreds of kilometers under the surface of the ocean that covered nearly all of Planet Los Angeles. There was little in the way of information about the obstacles that the retrieval team would end up facing. The Ta´s speculated that there would be another guardian to be faced by anyone attempting to reach the artifact, but there was no indication as to what form it might take. Finally, Rob had been provided with a contact number for once the artifact was secured. The Ta´s would relay more instructions to him at that point. Rob sighed. It really wasn´t much to work with. Konn´s debriefing of Nikolai, on the other hand, was extremely thorough. Rob noted the rather large audio file and was quite surprised to see it had a total runtime of just under two hours. <i>Looks like Konn was plenty meticulous. Wonder if he was ever trained in counterintel techniques? </i> Rob listened intently to the conversation between his trader friend and the man they had rescued from the secret Outcast installation. To say that Nikolai had been given a rough time was an understatement. Listening to the Rheinlander tell the tale of multiple beatings made Rob see his last few days in an entirely different light. Unfortunately Nikolai´s story, while rich in detail, didn´t offer Rob many insights into Mason, The Covenant, or Juan. Mason was mentioned at the beginning, and Rob heard Nikolai´s version of Damien´s tale. The Liberty Governor soon faded into the background as the Outcasts took custody of Nikolai. The still mysterious Juan popped up from time to time but Rob couldn´t tell exactly what his place in the tale was. The constant reminders of how Tanya had drifted away at the mention of the name made it difficult for Rob to concentrate. Eventually, unable to clear his mind, Rob shut the recording off. <i>What the </i> hell <i>was up with Tanya anyway? Who is Juan? How does Tanya know him? What did he mean to her? </i> The questions came fast and unrelenting. Rob had no answers, only wild guesses. None were satisfying. Rob rose from the bed and began to pace back and forth, brooding over what had happened in the Sabre. He tried to think of other things, to push the questions aside through rigorous physical exercise, but nothing worked. And the more he thought about it, the worse he felt. Eventually Rob couldn´t take not knowing anymore. Frustrated, he threw his hands in the hair and shouted “What the HELL!?” <i>Okay, that´s it. I´m going to ask Tanya. </i> Rob thought. <i>I mean, she can´t keep blanking out like that. What if it hadn´t just been Xeno punks on us? What if there had been four Outcast Sabres? It´s dangerous. Too dangerous. </i> Rob sighed. Deep down he knew that wasn´t the only reason he felt the need to ask. Pushing those thoughts aside, Rob stepped into the attached bathroom. If he was going to confront Tanya, he thought it best to do so looking presentable. Rob turned the shower on and waited for the stream of water to warm up. Steam soon began to rise and Rob stepped under the hot spray. His muscles, tense from so much action, began to loosen. He scrubbed down vigorously, relishing the feeling of finally being clean. A few minutes later, after Rob had begun to towel himself off, there came a knock at the door. Rob wrapped the towel around his waist and went to the door. He peered through the peephole and saw that it was Tanya standing in the hall. Despite his state of relative undress, Rob disengaged the door´s locks and opened it partway. “Yeah?” Rob asked, sticking his head into the hall. It looked like Tanya had taken his advice. She was clean, and had replaced her dirty jumpsuit with a plain white tank top and dark grey pants. Tanya took that as an invitation to come in. Pushing the door wide open, she stepped into Rob´s room and turned to face the freelancer. “We need to talk.” <b>Summary: Rob kicks the crap out of a couple Xenos, reviews some info, and gets all worked up over Tanya´s episode in the Sabre. </b>

Tanya and Rob cried out in ecstasy one last time before finally collapsing onto the mattress, their bodies utterly spent. In between his own ragged gasps for breath, Rob could feel Tanya´s chest rise and fall heavily against his own. Rob caressed Tanya´s back, slowly running a hand down her spine and Tanya sighed happily. She lowered her own head to Rob´s and strands of blond hair tickled Rob´s cheeks as they shared a tender kiss. Words failed Rob. All he could think to do was to wrap his arms around Tanya and hold her. So he did. Rob searched for a way to express himself properly but the sensation of her breathing, and the rhythmic beat of her heart, lulled Rob to sleep in moments. Rob woke to the familiar sensation of Tanya running her one hand softly through is hair, the other hand slid slowly, almost hypnotically, along the ridges of Rob´s stomach. While he had been dozing Tanya had moved from above him and now lay on her side. Rob felt the warmth of her body nestled against his own and the light weight of her head resting on his chest. Opening his eyes, Rob looked at Tanya as she lay there. She seemed to him to be glowing. Rob tightened the sleepy grip he had around her waist. Tanya didn´t react but to instinctively rub her leg against Rob´s. Her mind seemed... elsewhere. Rob decided against interrupting whatever thoughts Tanya was having and simply basked in her glow. It did not take long before she fully occupied his mind. Rob thought of her strength, speed, and grace. Her loyalty and indomitable spirit. Her playfulness. Her beauty. In that moment it dawned on Rob just how truly lucky he was. Rob reached with his free hand and held Tanya´s chin between his thumb and forefinger. He shifted his body slightly, and turned Tanya´s head towards his own so their eyes met. &quot;I love you.&quot; Rob whispered. It wasn´t the first time he had said those words. It wasn´t even the first time he had meant them. But somehow Rob knew that with Tanya it was different. There were probably hundreds of women throughout Sirius who Rob would gladly have spent his life with. But there was only one Tanya. And she was his one. Tanya didn´t respond immediately and for one terrible moment Rob feared he had somehow misstepped. He relaxed when she merely smiled and rested her head on his chest once more. After a long while Tanya turned to Rob and asked, &quot;What´s the plan now?&quot; Rob closed his eyes for a few seconds and gathered thoughts which had drifted far from his consciousness. He relayed all the relevant information from Nikolai´s debriefing to Tanya. Each mention of Juan briefly created some feelings of discomfort, but they were soon forgotten as the story continued. Tanya was silent for some time after Rob finished as she considered the new information. She sighed. &quot;We should get going, Rob. Time to save the universe.&quot; Rob felt a chill as Tanya rolled away from him and sat up on the bed. The freelancer looked out the viewport at the myriad stars and sighed. <i>Yeah. Time to save the universe. </i> His gaze then drifted to Tanya´s naked back and Rob was gripped by a sudden, burning desire. Just as the young woman was about to stand, Rob flicked his arm out and grabbed Tanya´s wrist. Tanya turned to look at Rob. &quot;The universe can wait.&quot; He said. And it did. - - - - The trip to LA was short and sweet. Rob had called Travis and Dr. Tomsons - who had been waiting for contact on Planet Curacao - and told them to wait in orbit above the oceanic Liberty planet. Travis was disappointed and Rob knew why. The roguish ex-bounty hunter surely had been enjoying the company and attention of many a bored rich woman during his stay on the resort planet. After that, Rob and Tanya discussed what they would do once they arrived on LA. Eventually they decided that Dr. Tomsons would be given the weapons from Omega-5 to analyze, while a team would descend to uncover and retrieve the artifact. Tanya and Rob found Travis and Dr. Tomsons waiting at the docking ring. &quot;Been waiting long?&quot; Rob asked. &quot;No. We only just arrived, actually.&quot; Dr. Tomsons replied. &quot;Good.&quot; Tanya said. &quot;Go on and dock. Rob and I will meet you on the surface.&quot; &quot;Look forward to it, babe.&quot; Travis drawled as he passed into the planet´s atmosphere. &quot;See you soon.&quot; Dr. Tomsons said. Then it was Tanya´s turn. She engaged the autodock and the Sabre was guided slowly into Planet Los Angeles´ atmosphere. Rob had one final call to make. He dialed up Hahukum Konn´s neural net. &quot;Hello?&quot; Came the trader´s distinctively accented voice. &quot;Hey, Konn. It´s Rob. Meet us in the LA bar.&quot; Rob said as Tanya aimed the fighter at a nearby landing platform. <b>Summary: Post-passion cuddles, and Rob and Tanya finally reach LA. </b>

After having contacted Major Warren and Gabriel Urran, Nikolai and Konn entered the bar. Travis was there already at a large empty table, and he greeted the group. He looked a bit unhappy, and Konn heard him grouse under his breath about getting taken off Curacao. Just as Hahukum was about to do the introductions, Rob and Tanya swept through the bar entryway, followed by a man with swirly blond hair, a slightly bulbous nose, and the skin color of a man who never saw the sun. <i>Hmm. Rob and Tanya look different, somehow. Less tense, maybe. Well, who knows. </i> Rob waved at the group, then sat down, plunking an object on the table. He said, “Hey there. First off, I see several strangers around here, so let’s get some introductions out of the way. I’m Rob Schaefer, and this is Tanya Ramirez. Her friend Travis Carter’s also here. This gentleman here is Dr. Tomsons, and he’s a researcher with the Hammer Institute. We’ll need him to look at that loot from the Junkers, Konn.” Konn nodded and said, “With me is Nikolai van Haalein, the man Rob and I rescued off an Outcast base in Omicron Alpha. We have with us a Major from the BAF, Nick Warren, and the freelancer who tipped us off about the attacks in Omega-5, Gabriel Urran. I think that covers everyone.” Nods all around the table. Konn began the meeting. “Let’s get down to business and update each other on what’s up. Rob, I’m going to have to hit you up for three hundred and fifty K to cover a deal I made with the Junkers to get the loot.” Rob whistled. “Yes, it’s a lot, but I paid three-fifty out of my own accounts as an advance payment, plus a minor bribe to the Junker I negotiated with.” “Ok, we’ll talk about it later. Continue.” “The BAF research people on Sprague didn’t get much out of the tractored-in loot we brought them – except for the unusual ship hull construction, but your Dr. Tomsons should coordinate with them to see if there’s anything they’ve overlooked. The Outcasts are very keen on obtaining what we’ve got, and took over Trafalgar to try and get their hands on the equipment and wreckage the Junkers took out of Omega-5. We were just ahead of them in getting to Rochester. “I believe that pretty well covers what we’ve been up to.” Konn rubbed Nikolai’s leg under the table subtly. The Rheinlander smiled ever so slightly at the soft touch. Rob took his cue and stood. He clasped his hands behind his back. “It all started when I got a call from Doc Tomsons there. In a nutshell, he put us on the trail of an expedition to a previously undiscovered system linked to Omicron Gamma. We had reason to believe that Mason might have been involved. “Turns out we were right. The group Mason is working with had sent a large contingent of researchers from the Hammer Institute to one of two planets in the system. It´s designated Primus, and for good reason. The dominant species on the planet is some sort of ape-man. They don´t like visitors though. “The natives killed almost all of the Hammer expedition members. They almost got me and Tanya as well, but we managed to take cover in a giant pyramid thing. That was what the Hammer scientists were supposed to be investigating. “We think some did try as well, but were killed by a guardian of sorts. I´m still not sure what that thing was, but it was mean as hell and killed any members of the Hammer team that the apes didn´t get. Fortunately Tanya and I managed to take it out.” “What was it guarding?” Gabriel asked. Rob looked at Tanya for a moment before speaking. “Nothing. At one point there must have been some sort of very powerful artifact, but it has either been destroyed or taken by some other group already. The main chamber was empty when Tanya and I got there. “So. Tanya and I leave the pyramid thing and, keeping out of sight of those monkeys, make our way to the remains of the Hammer outpost. You know, to snoop around there for any leads on other things that Mason might be after. “The place is pretty well trashed. But we do manage to find one or two useful bits of info. Apparently there´s more than one of those big pyramids in Sirius, and it looks like one is here on LA. It´s a safe bet that Mason and his allies will be here soon, so if there´s anything of use to be found here. I´d like to get to it first. “That covers what’s happened and what we need to do. Take a break and order some drinks, then we’ll get back to what’s got to happen.” Nikolai got up to go to the washroom, and whispered in Rob´s ear. Hahukum, puzzled at the encounter, got up and ordered a tea for himself and a hot chocolate for Nikolai. The others drifted back to the table with various beverages, alcoholic or non, as preference dictated. As he sipped his tea, he thought something was missing. It wasn´t anything definite, but having been told about Rob´s encounters with a splinter group from the Nomads, it sounded as though Rob had left something out. Once everybody was seated, Nick said, “All right. What do we need to do?” “Right now, Tanya and I will go on underwater reconnaissance. Dr. Tomsons will begin analysis of the material Konn brought back, so if all of you help unload the stuff and secure it, we can find out what’s so special about it, and fast.” Gabriel said, “I would like to go with Rob and Tanya, as well.” Rob said, “Do you have underwater diving experience?” “Some. I used to do some deep-lake diving on Denver to get trained on scuba gear.” “Works for me. Let’s go.” Murmurs of acknowledgement swept the table, and the group slowly broke up into smaller conversational units as Rob, Tanya and Gabriel left to get started. --- Just as Konn was about to open the Humpback for Nikolai <i>et al </i> to begin unloading, Major Warren came into the docking bay. He looked disappointed, but spoke crisply. “Hello, all. I’ve just been ordered back to Bretonia with my crew. Seems we’re ready to squash some more Mollys in Dublin. I can stay to unload your ship, then I’ve got to leave.” Hahukum said, “Sorry to hear that, Major. You’ve been helpful. Good luck.” With that, the group rapidly began relocating the mass of equipment, hulls and junk into a nearly research facility Dr. Tomsons had set up in an empty warehouse. The man actually began looking humanly excited as he peered at the weaponry and noted some unusual characteristics of the material. --- Some hours later, In their room, Nikolai said, “Konn, Rob´s hiding something.” “You´re right. Is that what you told him when you went to the washroom?” “Yeah. I let him know I wasn´t fooled. He found something when he and Tanya were on that planet and he´s not telling us. Why?” “Gabriel.” “What does he have to do with this?” Nikolai asked. “You weren´t in the ship´s cockpit when I finally managed to get a hold of Rob.” Hahukum began. “Before he told me to bring everyone here, he told a very short tale of what he had been up to. But some of what he said over the comm never appeared in his little speech at the bar. He mentioned being captured by a secret society – I think he called them the Tau-somethings – and that this secret society has an agent named Gabriel. “Rob is rather a suspicious fellow. I´m sure that when he found out Gabriel´s name, he automatically assumed that our man is the Tau agent.” “Well, Rob better come clean or he´ll get some embarrassing questions in front of Gabriel. I don´t like it when people hide things from me.” A light tug on his shoulder brought Nikolai around to face Konn, who smiled slightly and said, “Forget that. Your chest is a nice pillow, and I’m tired from lugging all that stuff two city blocks.” ----- <b>Summary: Not much, just debriefing and prepping for nailin´ ol´ Mason. </b> <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> OOC: MInor revisions to incorporate suggested dialog change. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Edited by - Hahukum Konn on 10/10/2005 8:14:27 PM

On the fringes of Colorado, a Liberty Defender with a unique design was tossed out of a jumphole. Its pilot, a man named Jake Talon, ran a quick systems check before powering up the ship’s engines and starting charging his cruise engine for the short flight to Planet Denver. The cruise engines activated, and he was pushed back into the soft leather of his pilot’s seat as the ship accelerated rapidly. The ship burst from the cloud, and Jake looked out the front viewport and saw the enormous shape of Planet Denver before him. <i>Liberty. It’s my home. </i> Then, a warning sounded, bringing him out of his reverie. In virtually no time at all, a cruise disruptor missile hit his ship and rapidly slowed him. He would have had a concussion if his straps hadn’t saved him. He powered up his normal engines, and his weapons, and pulled up his sensor readings. <i>Wow, I’ve stumbled into a battleground. </i> Space boiled with laser discharges from the Xenos and the Rogues. The Rogue Bloodhounds and Wolfhounds were dueling the Xeno Hawks and Startrackers. There were at least seven pilots on either side. Jake targeted a pair of Xenos and fired his new Death’s Hands. The rapid, white pulses cut through the enemy ships like nothing. One spun out and detonated, and the other blasted past him, with its shield depleted. Jake hit his engine kill and slid around, targeting the fleeing ship and dispatching it with a well-placed burst. He then spun onto his right wing and pulled a tight turn to target a lone Rogue. He dispatched that ship with ease as well. After a few minutes of fighting, Jake had taken care of the rest of the pirates. He activated his tractor beam and grinned with satisfaction as many beams shot out to snag salvageable bits of ship, as well as several escape pods. Jake activated his cruise engines again, satisfied that he had done his bit of cleaning up the pirate trash in Liberty for the day. He smoothly rounded the dark side of the planet and then pulled up to the docking ring. The two opposing pylons opened and Jake guided his ship in between them, and descended to the planet surface. He set the Defender down on a pad near his favorite bar on Denver, the White Lance. He pulled the pirate laptop out of storage and took it with him into the bar. The bar was virtually empty; only a pair of Liberty Policemen chatting lightly in a corner. Jake took a booth for himself in the back, and pulled out the laptop. He powered it up, and as it loaded, he ordered a high-quality dark beer, brewed up in the Denver mountains. He then pulled up his control program, designed himself to manages the networks he was accessing, as well as concealing his presence. He pulled up the police records first. He scanned the latest reports for anything worthwhile. Nothing… nothing… there! A man named Travis Carter had been arrested in California for unruly drunkenness and attempting to pilot a ship while under the influence. The LPI had done the normal thing, just take him in until he was sober, charge him a hundred credits plus damages, and let him go. However, the interesting bit was that he had been saying odd things while in custody. Several mentions of a “Tanya” were included by the officer as being said by Travis. This was it! Jake pinpointed the bar, and pulled up the security cameras. Sure enough, there was a man fitting the description of Travis Carter sitting there. Now, he knew that the name Travis Carter had struck something. He quickly ran a background check on all networks. Travis was a bounty hunter with a few impressive bounties made. No record of any criminal activity. On a hunch, however, Jake ran a general check on Travis. Over five hundred random reports showed up, most were routine reports of travel through a jumpgate in one house or another, as well as a few more reports of unruly drunkenness. Jake scanned the entries. Man, this guy really gets around! Jake thought to himself when he saw reports in Liberty, Rheinland, Kusari, Bretonia, The border and edge worlds. He decided to narrow them down to only hits in Liberty. He then eliminated all times that Travis was alone. There, an entry of Travis entering Liberty with another person, who LPI had named “Tanya” after intercepted communication traffic. That was it! Now Jake knew where he had heard that name before! Travis Carter was a companion of Tanya and Rob, when he saw them at Cali! Suddenly, everything came clear to Jake. Travis must be waiting for something, if he still hung around after getting arrested! That meant that he was waiting to meet up with some of his friends. Jake smiled, he had them. Next, he made a quick scan over the networks for any other LSF operatives working nearby. Nothing…. Nothing…. There was one! A signal from the Battleship Rio Grande. He checked the signal. <i>No way, this is impossible. It can’t be. </i> It was. Back when Jake was Liberty Diplomat to Bretonia, he had a young officer under him. A man named Mackenzie, he had risen quickly through the ranks of the LSF, until he was Jake’s security advisor. Mackenzie, or Mac as he was known, was a very intelligent man, who knew a lot about fighting and strategy. Jake had actually learned a lot of his hand to hand fighting skills with Mac, and Mac had taught him a lot of other things while they were sitting in Jake’s office in the Liberty Embassy on New London. Mac had followed Jake as his assistant when he was moved to serve as Chief Advisor to President Jacobi. They knew each other very well, but when Jake was forced to flee Liberty because of Jack Mason’s death threats, he chose to leave Mac in the dark to protect him. Last that he’d heard of Mac was several years ago when rumor had it that he was deep undercover as an intel agent in one of the pirate organizations. If Mac was at the Rio Grande, that meant he either was busted and had to run, or he succeeded. What it definitely meant was that Mac was no longer working as a pirate, so Jake could safely approach him again. There was only one problem. Before Jake was forced to flee and join the Order, he was known as Jake Edwards. Now, because of Mason, Jake Edwards was a wanted man in Liberty. Because of this, Jake had switched his last name to Talon when he joined the Order, and Orillion had set him up as a Lt. Colonel in the Intelligence Branch of the Liberty Security Force. Also, Jake had gotten his appearance changed so he could travel safely, and that meant that Mac probably would recognize him. Knowing Mac, if he saw a man posing as Jake Edwards, he would shoot him. However, due to the secrecy of Jake’s identity, there was no way he could tell Mac what was going on ahead of time. There was no way he could risk tight beaming a transmission to Mac, because even if it was barely noticeable, he was shooting it right at a Liberty battleship, after all, so it was bound to be intercepted. So, Jake decided to simply fly above the radar and send Mac a simple, uncoded message. If it didn’t seem like he had anything to hide, the battleship’s crew wouldn’t suspect anything. Also, Jake Edwards’ bounty and attempted arrest were old and minor enough that people wouldn’t remember them now, anyway. He opened up the channel, and pressed the talk button on his headset. “Mac, this is Jake Edwards. Meet me on the deck in five.” He received an acknowledgement from Mac and proceeded to dock. All of a sudden, his neural net beeped. He stopped the ship and activated it. Kress popped up. “Colonel Talon, you are to eliminate Ramirez and Schaefer immediately, do you copy?” Jake opened his mouth to reply, but then paused. He looked into the background of the shot, behind Kress’s head. People walked back and forth behind him, but they weren’t Order members… Outcasts! One of them had a Cardamine breather on! “General, where are you? I thought you were on Toledo.” “Kress’s eyes widened. “None of your business! I am on assignment! Kill them now!” The screen snapped off. Kress was lying. He wasn’t on assignment; generals NEVER went on assignment. That meant he was hiding something. Suddenly, it all popped together. The video, the briefing, the Outcasts. Kress was one of them! One of the Covenant! I need to go and get Schaefer and Ramirez out of here! Kress knows they are here, and if I don’t kill them soon, he’ll send someone else. Jake re-activated the docking sequence and shuddered as the implications of what he had just discovered meant. He set the ship down on the deck, popped open the canopy and hopped out. He had time to hit his remote to close the hatch when Mac walked onto the pad with two other men. Jake smiled when he saw Mac, and grinned even bigger when he saw who was with him. That has to be Linus. No way! Linus was Mac’s assistant when he worked for Jake. Mac and Linus had been great friends, and it seemed that they still were. Mac got closer, and then directed a searching look at Jake’s face. Here it comes. This is where things work out or I die. “Hold it!” Mac shouted, “put your hands up where I can see them!” Mac had drawn his sidearm, so Jake, not looking for trouble with Mac, raised his arms. “Now, tell me why you are pretending to be Jake Edwards! You aren’t him, so tell me! Is this some sort of trap to lure me out and kill me? Are you a Xeno?” “My name is Lt. Colonel Jake Talon. I used to be known as Jake Edwards, but I do not go by that name or identity any longer.” “I don’t believe you! Captain Palmer,” he turned to the other man, “do you know this man?” Palmer frowned up at Jake and then shook his head. Dark venom shown in Mac’s eyes as he shouted, “If you are really Jake Edwards, you had better prove it and prove it fast. I don’t think I can stand you staining his memory any longer!” “Well, let’s see. Your name is Mac, and you were my security advisor when I was in Bretonia as a diplomat. You are not married, your assistant’s name was Linus, and he is standing to your left, and you received the Medal of Valor for saving my life from Corsair assassins in Bretonia.” “You’re a good one all right. But that stuff can all be found in my file, which your people would have cracked open before you came. Give me something not on my file.” “Your favorite drink is a good, dark Rheinland Skadi beer, just like me. Oh, and you had a secret heartache for Queen Carina for a time while we were working in Bretonia. It took me two years to convince you that it would never work for you.” Mac stared up at him for a moment. “That’s exactly right, and only the real Jake Edwards would know that. It really is you. I can’t believe it, it IS you! What happened to you? Why did you disappear?” “I’m glad you believe me. At least that’s one person. What about you other two? Can I entrust some top secret information to you?” Linus nodded vigorously. “If Mac believes you, then I do, sir.” John Palmer, captain of the Rio Grande, looked at the other two, then at Jake. “These two know what they’re doing, so I trust you as well.” “Good, now for some answers. Well, back when I was working as an advisor, I received a priority message from President Jacobi, who I knew quite well. She told me that I was about to be promoted to the status of Governor of the Colorado System, the one we’re in now. However… wait.” Jake pulled a small datapad out of his pocket and hit a few buttons. “There, just needed to jam any prying eyes or ears around us. Okay, so when I got this message, I replied to Jacobi, telling her I would be honored to take the job. Moments later, I received another message from Jack Mason, Governor of California. He told me that I should not accept the job, else I would be killed. I still have no idea how he found out about the promotion so quickly, but needless to say, he did. I was not about to be scared by the threat, so I told him that I would not back down. Five minutes later, I had a five million credit bounty on my head, put out by the BHG, rather than the Navy. That was when I am sure you, Mac, and you, Linus, saw me running out of my office like a madman. I reached the pad safely, got in my Defender, and headed to the Badlands. I was chased out of the system by tons of Bounty Hunters and Police forces, but I made it to the Texas Jumphole, and eventually made it to Rheinland. Anyway, I contacted a man there. This man had contacted me over a year before, inviting me into a secret organization. I had thought it was a trap, but he ended up sending me information that blew my mind. Unfortunately, I had been very busy at the time and had declined. I contacted him and he met me on New Berlin. The organization was the Order, and I am sure you have all heard of it. The Order, contrary to popular belief, is not a criminal organization. They are misunderstood, but they protect us from things that I don’t have the time to explain. Those high up in Liberty’s government know about their true mission, but all that is ultra-secret. Anyway, I joined them, and they changed my identity to Jake Talon. I’ve been working with them, as well as in the Liberty Military, for a long time now. And, now I have a very important mission, one that could very well bring about Mason’s downfall, and I’m gonna need help.” Jake stood there and waited for them to respond. Each man looked pretty stunned, and they were slow to respond. “Jake, I’m gonna trust you on this. I’ll follow you,” Mac said. “I’m coming,” Linus said. “Count me in too,” said John. “Great, well, I need to get to Los Angeles, and I need to make a very public arrest of two individuals. They are working against Mason, and I need them.” “But why arrest them?” Mac asked. “Because Mason’s on them and I need to throw him off the scent. These people are named Rob and Tanya, and they are going to be meeting together with several others on LA very soon. I need to get onto the planet, and grab just the two of them before they escape. Then, I’ll announce their arrest, and we’ll get them out of Liberty. The arrest needs to be clean, so I’ll need a lot of help, as they are both highly skilled and dangerous.” “How dangerous are we talking?” John asked. “You know about the destruction of Cali Base?” “Yes.” “That was them.” “Oh, dear goodness.” “Yeah, this won’t be easy. Here’s the plan. I want you, Captain Palmer, to stay here and get some men ready for the arrest. I need the best.” “Will do, sir.” “Mac, Linus, what are you guys flying these days?” “I’m in a Startracker, unfortunately,” Mac said. “I have a Falcon,” Linus said. “Captain, do you have any spare ships I can buy?” “Let’s see. I have a few Patriots and Defenders, two Rhinos, and a beat-up Falcon on board that I recovered in a recent battle.” “How much for the Falcon?” “I’ll sell it to you for fifty grand, and you can get it fixed up at the mechanic’s for cheap. I’ll tell him to expect you.” “Done.” Jake pulled out a cred-stick and made the transaction. “Sir, what’s the Falcon for?” Mac asked. “That’s for you. Enjoy.” “Oh my. Thank you sir.” “Alright, now that both of you have decent ships, we need to acquire a small capital ship or transport of some kind to make the arrest.” “Colonel, we have just received a new Liberty Gunboat from the government for use against the Xenos. However, we don’t start operations with her for four more weeks, so I could lend her to you for a while. She has a full crew and everything, so you can use her well, I’m sure.” “Wow, you’re our savior today, Captain. We would be happy to use her.” “Good. Well, I’ll just go and make the necessary transfer orders, and you guys can be off for LA.” “Great, thank you very much, Captain.” ***** An hour later, the Falcon was repaired and the three of them were ready to go. Captain Palmer called and informed them that the gunboat <i>Cold Fury </i> was waiting for them. They launched and met up with the gunboat. The ship’s commander was named William Sanford. The three fighters, and the Cold Fury departed the Rio Grande and headed for LA. <b>Summary: Jake returns home. He pops some pirates. We learn more about his background. He finds Travis on LA, and deduces that there will be a meeting there. He meets up with Mac, an old friend, and then he, Mac, and some other companions head to LA to arrest Rob and Tanya. </b> Edited by - ww2jacob on 10/13/2005 4:55:37 PM Edited by - ww2jacob on 10/13/2005 5:13:13 PM

OOC: Well, my update has been delayed thanks to school. However I finally got it up n´ working. Stefan found himself just outside the Omega-7 jumphole in Omega-5. He noticed no difference; barren rocks still filled the barren system. ‘’No contacts yet’’ he said to himself, ‘‘well, lets see if there lies any truth in that rumour.’’ He powered up his cruise engines and headed for Ronneburg Base. Rocks, stones and pebbles swept by the ship. After a few minutes pieces scrap metal started to appear here and there, but that could just be a result of another larger battle. But that assumption didn’t last long, as his fears were confirmed as he entered as small debris field. ‘’Oh dear Lord! This can’t be true! Please don’t let it!’’ Ronneburg base locked like a torn apart Swiss cheese. Large hole filled chunks of stone and metal that were connected to each other was all that remained of the former Hessian outpost. The airlocks were blown open and the interiors filled with corpses of soldiers young and old. The metal skeleton of the station was divided into large pieces floating around in the open vacuum of space. But the place was clearly clean of any useful scrap metal. Junkers, no one else would be interested in such useless pieces of crap. He set his course for Cadiz, to see if the densely populated station had met the same fate. He left the dark ruins of Ronneburg behind himself. A sorrow feeling now permeated his body. Even after all horrifying, psychotic experiments he had witnessed in Alaska he had never seen the sight of hundreds of dead human bodies at one place. So much death, so much destruction. Who could possibly want to kill on a scale this large? The same sentence repeated itself in his brain over and over again. Creating a kind of inner psychological pain he felt unable to deal with. He had always felt weak at the sight of death. He could only hope that there souls were in a better place than in this hellish universe. As he entered the Hammen Hole he noticed an unusual absence of mines. Usually the edge was almost covered with mines, but not this time. He also picked up several Junker contacts, only confirming the dreaded rumour even more. Now mines were seen here and there, but they seemed to keep a strangely long distance from each other. He remembered the one time he had passed through the Hammen Hole. He was barely able to avoid the mines. Lucky for him he had a Hawk that time so that the only one mine that detonated on him was reflected away by his shield. But now all he had to do was to avoid the rocks. Sooner or later he began to approach the centre of the Hammen Hole. What he saw shocked him. The ships that usually lie scattered in the Hole were either totally gone or ‘’excavated’’, opened up and cleaned of anything that could have lied within (except the half naked body of the pilot), possibly done by Junkers. Junkers never hold any higher respect for other people than those of their own, especially not dead people. Stefan always disliked people who desecrated the corpse of another human. ‘’When one as been laid to eternal sleep he should be left to rest in peace unless his testament states otherwise.’’ was his saying to people who performed these unmoral acts. But his train of thought came to a halt immediately as a base appeared in front of him. It held the usual tube like characteristics of a Junker base. Even his neural net picked up the base. He examined the base using the ships electronics and found out that the base was still under construction, but docking was permitted nonetheless. The station seemed to be dubbed ‘’Fairbanks’’. He assumed that it must be the point from where the Junkers are conducting their mining operations within Omega-5. He opened a COM-channel with the station to dock but hesitated, and remained silent. In the end he decided not to, and continued towards his designated point, Cadiz. He ignored the Junkers and he was a bit angered. His view of them changed. In past times he had looked on them as unofficial cleaners, but from this day on he would always look down on them and class them as scumbags. As filthy, greedy, heartless scumbags. Any person with emotional and moral senses would not do that, or at least shouldn’t. To empty ones resting place for personal gain is a totally disrespectful act. People should be punished for doing such things , Stefan thought. A large grey rock appeared from afar. It looked unchanged for the first 30 seconds, but then some places started to look darker, almost black. He left the now calm the Hammen Hole to find neither mines nor any weapon platforms. And metallic debris littered the place that under normal circumstances is filled with rocks. As the enormous asteroid began to look clearer Stefan seemed to make out giant holes in the former base. He decided to examine on of the holes a little closer. He flew into it and was shocked to see that it went right through the whole station. He looked to the side, of the hole. Huge cracks went from one hole to another. The entire station seemed to be crackled and full of hole filled. He flew inside the gigantic asteroid city, what he found in sent a cold, horrifying chill through his spine that would make even the most hardened soldier to shake of pure horrification. Bodies were floating around in the vacuum. Some were completely intact, others frozen, some heavily burnt, a bunch of them were torn apart and a lot had their bodies teared up in various places. Intestines and vital organs were sweeping by the cockpit of Stefan’s hunk of junk. Tears began to flow from Stefan’s eyes. He had never witnessed genocide like this. The thought of how many people have lost their lives in one place at one time was unable to comprehend. The saddened feeling that this place gave one felt like a dagger in the stomach for Stefan. At this horrid place he decided to make himself a promise. He would change the way he lived, and felt. Whenever he killed anyone, no matter for what reasons, he would count that as a wrongdoing. He would grieve for every mammal that he directly or accidentally took the life of. He would make the grief into a burden, a burden that he would carry to his death. A burden that would grow larger for every person that died by his hand, by his guns. No matter how evil, or how good, he would grieve for them. Then his burden would grow. Therefore, to keep this burden at a minimum, he would kill as little as he was able too. If he would kill every man or woman that attacks him at open space, his burden would grow so heavy that in the end, his life would be nothing more but an agony. At this moment he considered himself not to be carrying on any burden. He didn’t count the lives he took before this moment. But every life he took from here on would add a little to the burden. He considered it a perfect plan to keep humans alive, he hated violence, he hated killing. What others did didn’t matter to him; it was his, and only his, actions that would burden him. If he was to compensate for the lives he took he should instead save lives. That would easy his burden and gives him resolve to continue living in this universe of hate. A feeling of relief. He dubbed his way of living ’’Vågen’’ or ‘’The Scale’’ to signify the weight of the burden coming from ones wrongdoings and the weight of living strength coming from ones good deeds. With this newfound resolve he flew towards an exit in the wall of this hollow base, heading for the Omega-41 system. But something unusual caught his attention and made him stop. It was an object gleaming in the light it reflected from the ships lights. He went a little closer to it, and examined the brown object from inside his cockpit. He tractored it in and quickly filled the cargo hold with Oxygen to make it hospitable. He set the ship on standby power and disconnected himself from it. He quickly went back into his small cargo hold with the size of a wardrobe. As the door slid open he rushed inside to see what he had found. It was brown like and contained a strange pattern on an intact smooth side that was flat, it somehow resembled to flint stone. It was very cold to touch. Stefan, in his excitement, did something he wouldn’t usually do with a newfound object. He pulled a blaster hid in his boot and unsecured it. Trained it at the flat side and shot, he didn’t know why he did it. The stone somehow quickly absorbed it and shot it away at the direction it was coming from. Stefan let go of his balance on purpose to fall to the ground to avoid the blast. The shot hit the metal ceiling of the ship. He stood up and once again trained it at the rock. But this time at the other side. It seemed to have been broken of something, so the other side was the exact opposite of the flat one. It contained no pattern and was coarse. He fired a second shot and it made some damage. Pebbles flew from the large object, he fired another one and the same thing happened. He decided it would be the smartest to take this piece of rock to the Cambridge Chemical Institute where it could be examined. But right now he set course for Omega-41 system. Stefan went back to his cockpit and plugged back the wire into his arm, engaged his cruise engines and flew directly towards the Omega-41 jumphole. He shook as he left the station. It would be a sight he would never forget. While inside the station he had noted the absence of Junkers in the area, looks like even they didn’t dare to go into that place. He arrived at the jumphole a few minutes later and flew into it. The ship began shaking and he leaned back into his chair. Taking a brief rest to gather his thoughts. He felt himself to be in some sort of disarray. The first thing that Stefan did when he exited the jumptunnel was to cruise towards Leon, a Corsair base. He quickly made use of the pharmaceuticals in his cargo hold, they would last till he reached Leon. There he would take a drink and give a hint to the bartender about what have happened in Omega-5. Also he would load his cargo hold with a load of pharmaceuticals. The strong radiation in within Omega-41 requires constant medication. It didn’t take long for Stefan to get a visual of Leon. Even though it looked exactly like any other fragment in this boring, devilish system it wasn’t so hard to recognize if one had been here before. ‘’This is Zoners Zeta 9-4 to Leon I’m requesting to dock’’ Stefan called to the station. He found it strange that wherever he went nowadays it looked dead and abandoned. Oh well, this is Omega-41 after all. What can I expect? He asked to himself in a sarcastic manner. ‘’Roger that Zoners Zeta 9-4, your request to dock is granted. Please proceed to dock 2.’’ The door to the airlock opened up for Stefan as he flew inside the safety of the base. The second door leading to the hangar opened up and Stefan repeated the procedure. Finally outside his ship he stretched himself and went directly to the bar. Normally he would load up the commodities before going to the bar, but he wouldn’t risk taking any chances with that strange rock in the ship. The bar didn’t look very interesting. Boring structure, but Leon is just a small military outpost in the middle of nowhere, so it’s actually no wonder that they only have such a simple bar. ‘’Well, at least they have wine.’’ he murmured and ordered a glass of the red liquid. It is said that one bottle of wine a day prevents dementia at old age. It also tastes good. ‘’Wine has been around since long before man started counting the ages. Walter had right, it is interesting how these old beverages have survived time and change.’’ he said to himself. ‘’And of course the Hispanian ones always taste the best.’’ He smiled and drank from the bittersweet drink. Once finished he gave the bartender a hint of what he had seen in Omega-5. Then he quickly left the bar. In the hangar he loaded up his ship with pharmaceuticals discreetly so that the commodity trader wouldn’t notice anything, then he left. Out in space he planned his route to Cambridge. First, he would enter the jumphole to Omega-5 where he would try avoiding the derelict Corsair base and jump to the Cambridge system. On planet Cambridge, he would donate his find to the Chemical Research Institute of Cambridge. Then, he would rent a room and get a days rest where after he would journey back to New Berlin. He calculated out the route and let the ships inbuilt computer take care of the rest. He would take a nap till then, and take a look at the black neutron star of Omega-41, dead as the rest of the system. We will all die one day… we are all destined to. My time will come soon enough, I’ll just have to wait a little more , he thought as he tried to sleep. <b>Summary: Stefan goes to se if the rumours of the Omega-5 slaughter held any thruth. He finds out that they do, he also finds a strange piece o´ rock which he´s planning to donate to Cambridge researchers. He also tries to inform the Corsairs about the happenings. Whether this has a good or bad effect, is up to you guys to decide. </b> <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Edited by - Nederbörd on 10/17/2005 10:30:35 AM