Griffon stood uncertainly in the main corridor of Freeport 10. Groups of people rushed to and fro, without seeming to notice him. He was wondering what his course of action would be when a man stepped out of the shadows to accost him. The first thing Griffon noticed about him was that he had a cardamine inhalor attached to his nose. The man must have seen Griffon's surprise, for he said with chuckle,
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, friend."
Griffon stepped forward, uncertain how to proceed.
"The Order have been involved here. Those cruisers were from the Order. They don't seem to be around anymore...in any case, we know where they're going."
Griffon had heard enough. "The Order! We must leave here now. We must - " he stopped short, for the man had began to laugh quietly.
"I'm afraid not. You are going to stay quite close to them. You won't be alone for long."
Griffon smiled incredulously. "Am I to take on the Order myself? I'm no wing-commander. My speciality was para-military operations. This is not part of my job."
The man's tone sharpened. "You do not understand. These are the times we have been waiting for. Our Organization is now exerting itself, extending every tendril, moving every disconnected part into action. You are part of the team. Do not miss your chance, friend, do not." The man's voice had darkened, but now resumed its normal state. "Our intelligence suggests the Order are making for our assets in Tau -23. We hope to 'deal' with them from tau 37. You are to head now to Tau 29."
"Tau 29? But - "
"Do not argue. When the time comes you will be given orders. We may not be strong enough with such short notice, so you must....well...when you arrive in Tau 23 it will be apparent what your duty is. That is all."
The man seemed to have become pre-occupied with some thought, and now paced off down the corridor.

Griffon left Freeport 10, and set his drives for the Tau system...

Tau-29, in low polar orbit over Planet Harris

Two Liberty Cruisers hung silently over the desolate wasteland of the Harris terraforming project. Three more ships dropped into formation beside them- the Black Gold (a Rheinland Gunboat) and the Fuji (a Kusari Gunboat), sandwiching a heavily damaged but operational transport.

"Savannah to Black Gold...I see you brought some friends along."

"Copy that, Savannah...NukeIt, is that you?"

"Affirmative. I used to be an officer on this boat, before the Nomad war...can't tell you what station, of course."

"Naturally. Care to know what the hauler is here for?"

NukeIt raised an eyebrow. He had, indeed, been wondering. The burn marks on the vessel's hull did not appear to have been caused by either Black Gold or the Fuji. He waited for a response.

"Bait. We pulled her captain's butt out of the fire when we entered the system...small Outcast patrol had wiped her escorts. She's hauling quite the load of H-Fuel. We'll transfer all we can into our tanks, along with her crew, then...well, with two cruisers here, we can spare a few gravitic mines. Catching on yet?"

He was, indeed, catching on. A broad grin spread across his face. While not nearly so devastating as a thermonuclear warhead, a handful of gravitic mines combined with a huge booster-charge of H-Fuel could make one hell of a big bomb. A bomb that, incidentally, was extremely hard to detect as gravitic mines left no signature until the moment of detonation. If his former second-in-command was thinking what he was thinking, this mission ought to go a whole lot easier than planned...now all they needed was a handful of civilian-manufactured escort fighters...

Nikoli gave a manic laugh as he left the LPI ships far behind him.

"380 on thrusters!" he shouted, to no one in particular.

He cleared the planets atmosphere and went on a wild stint of exploration, jumping through every jump hole he could find until he entered into tau 29. As he neared planet Haris, he noticed a pair of cruisers and their escort.

"Unknown cruisers, this is the Runaway Runabout. It seems I have a truely fantastic ship on my hands, and nothing special to do with it. You wouldn't by chance need an extra bit of firepower, would you?"

As a demonstration of his new ships abilities, Nikoli pulled his triggers, and a medium sized asteroid crumbled into dust.

"What do you say, mate? Want a hand?"

"Commodore, we're being hailed by a small...I don't recognize it, sir. It's coming in fast, requesting to join our task force."

NukeIt's eyes narrowed. He leaned over the console of the officer who alerted him to the new arrival and studied the ship in detail.

"It's got an LPI flag on it. Stolen. From the look of it, an expensive little number...what do we have on the pilot?"

"Not much yet, sir. I'm cross-checking the voice pattern analysis with our records to see if he's on file..."

NukeIt drummed his fingers on the back of the chair, irritated. What was a ship stolen in Liberty space doing approaching a pair of cruisers obviously of Liberty manufacture? Did the pilot know anything about the affiliations of the crew...or about him?

"Bring defensive systems online. Until we can ID this guy, we're going to keep him at arms' length. Instruct him to hold at 2000 meters until further notice...any closer and he will be fired on. Cloak the Black Gold and keep our fighters out of sight; if he's not trustworthy those will be a dead giveaway as to who we are."

"Still no confirmation...Commodore, he's not in our records. Nothing, aside from a flag for stealing the ship he's flying now."

NukeIt sighed, agitated. A thrill-seeking shipjacker blowing our cover...just what we didn't need right now.

"Open a channel to that ship."

The comms officer nodded, indicating that it was done.

"Pilot of unidentified vessel, please leave the area immediately, you are jeapordizing a military operation. If you keep quiet about this, we might not pass on your whereabouts to the Bounty Hunters' Guild and LPI. If you come any closer, we will consider it an act of aggression and open fire."

OOC: You know these cloak-and-dagger types. Not very inclined to be trusting every little ship that comes through, unless it's broadcasting a friendly beacon- and even then, it had better by somebody familiar flying the thing. File this under "pre-op paranoia" combined with "several years of sneaking around the colonies killing people for the Order and not getting noticed."

Griffon's Cobra was stopped motionless in Tau-29's asteroid field, from time to time the occasional stray object shattered into the ship's hull, causing the shield to flare up, illuminating the surrounding rocks. It's pilot had been surveying a rather large concentration of military ship's congregated around Planet Harris for some time.

Griffon resisted the temptation to speculate, but instead focused his energy concentrating on observing the enemy ship's. What they were up to, he could not guess, but he wished something would happen soon. He wished that his contact had been more open, but he could appreciate the need for secrecy. A subtle movement caught his eye, and his head turned on impulse towards it. He caught his breath sharply.
There, as if formed from the blackness of space itself, materialized a squadron of Outcast Sabre's. Griffon counted four group's of four in offencive claw formation, sixteen in total, they sped towards the Order ships.
After the initial shock, Griffon experienced another. For this small force could not hope to defeat the Order, already before his eyes a Liberty Cruiser turned to face the onslaught, its concentrated fire ripping through one of the Sabre's sheild and hull.
Something about the attack struck Griffon as odd. The Outcast ships were hardly firing at all, and when they did it was in sporadic bursts, but seemed to be mainly occupied in evading enemy fire. It was obvious to him that they were stalling time.
From his knowledge of the Order, he knew that they would quickly see through any feint or trick, and so he hoped whatever was coming would come soon.

Suddenly, a strange thought entered his mind. At that very moment his communication console flashed a message. Griffon's mind was yanked back to his military days, when he had been injected into the Red Hessian - Rheinland conflict, payed by a certain house military to bring "stability" to the situation. Many a Red Hessian ambush had unexpectadly failed, many a Rheinland Gunboat had inexplicably combusted during important military negotiations, all thanks to him. His memory went back to one particular time....

A sudden thunder-like crack brought his mind back to the present, and he looked back up at the battle, setting his thrusters to full throtle, his heart pounding. He knew what he had to do...

Edited by - Griffon_26 on 3/14/2006 1:02:15 AM

"Ok Cruiser, If you dont want me, I'll beat it." Nikoli said, disapointed. "Your missing out on something special though." He turned to leave when suddenly all hell broke loose.

"Cruiser, 16 bandits inbound!" he shouted, "They look like outcasts." He fired his thrusters and sped towards the incoming ships. skewing wildly to throw off their targeting computers. As they sped past each other, Nikoli's guns took down one of the Sabers, and the two cruisers each destroyed one. 13 left.

He manuvered quickly, trying to get behind one of the enemy ships, finally, one ship sped past him.

"Got ya." Nikoli muttered, as he blew the ship to powder. Then he noticed the plasma beams overshooting him, he had three more ships on his tail.

Beams of energy took down his shield and began to rock his hull. smoke billowed from somewhere behind his head, and no matter where he turned, one always seemed to be behind him. He killed another outcast, but was begining to notice a perceptable drop in manuverability. He was sure he was going to be killed when a pair of liberty fighters jumped onto the ship behind it. In seconds the Saber no longer existed.

"Runabout, this is Wolf-Zulu-1, can you guess what I'm going to say?"

"Ehhh, Clear out?" Nikoli asked, disapointed.

"Not quite, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Nikoli laughed, but suddenly his laughter turned to ashes as he noticed something on his sensors.

"Ahh, Cruiser, Wolf, you're not done yet, you have a fleet, aproaching from 270 mark 90." Craning his neck, he could just see the ship's emisons signature, aproaching from 'straight up'.

"Err, Cruiser, you sure you don't want me sticking around?"

OOC: Yah, I understand Nuke, just watch your back eh?

Edited by - chupa on 3/14/2006 8:34:50 AM

"Commodore, we're under attack! Outcast strike group, dead ahead!"

"Open fire with the main cannon! Force them to break off into our defensive coverage area! Fighter group to 338, use cruise disrupters. Be careful, they've got more armor!"

In an instant, the area exploded in a flurry of crackling energy blasts and hyper-vee slugs. The initial salvo from the Savannah's massive main cannon annihilated one of the inbound fighters with enough directed energy to vaporize a skyscraper from orbit. The others broke into an evasive pattern, but each was caught by a cruise disrupter from one of the Order escorts, rendering them unable to run away.

"Black Gold, maneuver around to block their entry vector. Stay under cloak until I give the order...they still can't know you're here."

"Copy that, Savannah. We're on it."

"Fuji, break and pursue your closest target. Lay down cover fire for our fighters, they're way out of their class here. Albany, form up...set your heading for the enemy's entry vector; we'll drag them straight over Black Gold's guns. And get that damned freighter out of the middle of the formation!"

The Order ships broke off according to their respective orders. The escort fighters, supported by the Fuji, managed to destroy an Outcast and his wingman, then wheeled around to face the next wave of attackers. The Savannah and the Albany were already on their way to where the gunboat Black Gold lay in wait, cloaked and ready to spring the trap. The freighter, with its deadly cargo of fuel and gravitic mines, burned hard for a safe haven to wait out the battle.

Then the freighter caught a stray bolt right in the cargo pod that held the mines. NukeIt grimaced and shielded his eyes from the flare, knowing that his battle plan had just gone up with the transport. All that remained where it, the Fuji, and his escorts had been was a tangled mess of half-molten metal and the handful of battered escape pods that had launched in the moments after detonation. The blast had surely wiped out most of the attackers as well, but not without so high a price as to make it a meaningless victory.

The remaining attackers regrouped as the two cruisers came closer and closer to the waiting Black Gold...

OOC: Nuke, did your post occure after or during mine? Also, this is my first RPG, so if I mess things up to bad, be sure to call me on it.

Edited by - chupa on 3/14/2006 9:43:49 AM

Name: Vice Admiral X. K. X Indy, II

Weapons of choice:
Ranged: Combined Strike Force Fleet
Close: Marine Regiment(s) or Several Fighter Wings, depending
Melee: Quick getaway mechanism(s)

Ship of choice: Undisclosed battle fleet flagship

Duty Status: Actively Inactive

Looks Like: 5' 5" (with lifts). Most commonly seen dressed in service khakis with clipboard and NASA pen in hand standing around water coolers or sitting at his desk with his seatback turned to the office entrance. Peaked cap with Admiral's scrambled eggs on the visor was planted between two pointy tufts of dark hair sticking out and up the sides of the cap.

"'Flarbeargharevbhjh!!' To you too Commodore Recusant. What brings you to this little dive I like to call a watering hole?"

The admiral clambered onto the stool next to Recusant and gestured to the bartender one of those *I'll have what he's having* signals. Little did the Admiral know that this was a rather lethal decision.


Edited by - Indy11 on 3/14/2006 9:57:15 AM

OOC: rescusant are you feelung ... Sane? We weren't aware that intelligent walruses exist!

oh and sorry TET, i'm kinda bogged down by school stuff right now

Edited by - The Shroud on 3/16/2006 1:35:08 PM

OOC: Doh! I didnt get it until now.

OOC: No worries, Shroud. I've always wanted to NPC a DM 'cos that's what I'm going to do

Langford

Despite the constant roar of engines, it was pretty clear that something untoward was happening. Langford dropped his pack and brought out his other two guns, readied them and turned round the corner.

He immediately saw three large, uniformed men attacking another with blaster rifle butts. They could be security or military, he was unsure. He felt obliged to intervene but one who's behalf? If only he could identify their uniforms...

OOC: Skill Check: Knowledge - Military (Untrained): 1d20 + 1 (Ability Bonus) = 1 + 1 *Fail - Natural One*

Seeing as nothing was coming to him, he had to try something else. He moved to some cover, primed his SPASR-7 and called out.

"You there, identify yourselves"

He hoped his own uniform was a bit better well known than theirs.

End Turn

A bit later, still in Tau-29

NukeIt glared out the viewports at planet Harris, cursing his luck in the past two weeks. Having lost his escort fighters, the Fuji, and a transport-turned-cruise missile, he now had no choice but to wait on more support before assaulting Tau-23. He wished that he still had the support of his squadron from the Nomad War; they had been the finest pilots and the best wingmen he had ever flown with. Not that the crew of the Savannah had been anything but supportive thus far; many of them remembered him from his tour of duty as helmsman several years before and had adapted well to his command. The Albany had taken a torpedo hit in battle; one of her engines was currently inoperable. NukeIt considered this a minor setback compared to everything else that had happened- at least the ship could still fire its weapons. Black Gold had pulled through unharmed, thanks to her cloak and the element of surprise.

NukeIt sighed and sat down. It would be a long wait for re-enforcements, no matter how long they actually took to arrive...

meeting back up on cambrige Shroud's squardron asserted that they had roughly 3 battleships converted and a large spy network. According to the reposts it seemed that the military was building somthing in secret and they wanted it to stay that way. With several spies being moved to the alaskan prison system he would be his shroud that there was somthing using the shipyard there.

hearing a hiss a man walked in to his room shrouded as much as he was in dark.