(OOC: took me a week to come up with all of this and it will take you guys probably a week to read have fun!)

Michael closed the door and looked at Lutz who was taking care of Alys. She obviously thought Lutz was dead and went into some kind of a shock when she saw him standing before her.
Michael wondered if she ever received the message wich Quigley was supposed to send to her.

"How is she?" Michael asked

"She'll be alright." Lutz answered in an abcent tone. He was looking at his wife. He was obviously relieved to see her again after all those months of uncertainty

"Well that's great. Is hope she's gonna wake up soon, because we need to go. I bet that woman at the desk has already called security and we can't risk to get caught."

Lutz didn't reply, but instead kept staring at Alys.

"LUTZ! We need to go." Michael shouted. A neighbour woke up and hit the wall, ordering them to be quiet.

Lutz looked up to Michael who was now standing right beside him.

"You're right." he said and gently patted Alys on the cheek trying to wake her.

"Hey, wake up baby."

She opened her eyes and looked straight into Lutz' eyes, looked at Michael and looked back at Lutz. she streched out her hand and touched Lutz' cheek.

"It's you." she determined with a smile and rose.

"Yes honey, it's me. I've come to get you out of here."

"But I thought you were..." She didn't finish that scentence. The thought alone was unbearable.

"No, I'm alive." He said as his smile got brighter.

"But how.. I mean, I recieved your message from West Point and later I heard it was distroyed and I though, oh my god, Lutz..."

Lutz bent over and kissed her on the mouth, thereby shutting her up.

Michael sighed in a form of desparation, they were never getting out of there in time if they kept screwing around.

"I wasn't at West Point," Lutz explained, "that was a friend of mine. He send that message, but don't worry, he made it out alive."

"Lutz, we need to go." Michael said impatiantly.

Alys sat up straight and looked at Michael.

"Who are you?" she asked. She must have forgotten about talking to him on the phone.

"I'd like to introduce you to Michael Armstrong." Lutz said as he helped Alys on her feet. "One of the best pilots in Sirius. He saved my life several times." Michael came forth to shake her hand.

"And he's done the same for me." Michael said.

"It's always good to meet a friend of Lutz'. But what are you two doing here?"

"You know about the war right?" Said Lutz. Alys nodded. "We're part of it and Liberty want's us dead."

"What? why?"

Lutz started to explain her the whole story, but Michael interrupted.

"We have no time guys," he said as he looked through the window. "The cops have arrived."

"Damn." said Lutz, "so much for a clean escape."

They left the appartment, passed the elevator and straight to the stairwell. Lutz grabbed his blasters and carefully opened the door and peaked through.
He gave the all clear and they followed him down the stairs. First Alys and Michael to give protection from behind.

They quickly but carefully descended to lower levels.
When they reached the seventh floor they heared the door on the ground level open. Lutz stopped and looked down. He saw a half a dozen cops making their way upstairs.

They exitted the stairwell as quietly as possible, but Michael lost hold of the door, wich slammed shut. They could hear the men downstairs talking to eachother as new orders were probably given to all to go to the seventh floor.
At the same moment they saw the elevator aproaching.

Michael cursed and turned to Alys.

"Is there another way out of here?"

"Yes, there is an external fire-escape. You can access it from every apartment through the window."

"Good." Said Lutz and he tried the first door - it was closed. He aimed his blaster at the lock and fired. The shot ripped through the wooden door and Lutz kicked it open.

Just as the elevatordoors opened, Michael, Lutz and Alys entered the apartment. A few shots were fired at them, but they hit nothing but walls.

"Go, go go!" Yelled Michael as they ran down the livingroom and turned left into the bedroom. A man and woman started to screem, scared by the sudden raid. Lutz, who was on point, shot through the window and shattered glas fell on the fire-escape and down on the pavement. He went through, followed by Alys and then Michael who fired a few shots at the bedroom door, because he saw the first cop come around the corner.

Unaware if he'd hit the man, he climbed out of the window and followed the others down the stairs. The scared couple still screamed and screamed even louder as the cops ran through their room. The first man who reached the window carefully looked outside. Michael looked up at that moment and shot at the man, forcing him to take cover. But only for a while, because when Michael ceased fire in order to escape, the cop, along with a few others, imediately opened fired upon them.

The metal rosters of the stairs covered them and deflected most of the shots. The cops started to pour out of the window and persued them.
Lutz had reached the lowest fixed level of the stairs and carefully stepped on the self-retractable ladder and descended to groundlevel.
He held on to the ladder in order for it not to retract again and Alys started to climbe down.

At that very moment six cops, probably the ones from the stairwell, rounded the corner. They couldn't see Lutz as he was obstructed from their sights by a large dumpster, but they could see Alys and Michael.
Without any warning they started shooting. Alys, who was taken totally by surprise, lost grip as a few shots impacted uncomortably close to her on the ladder. She fell down on the sidewalk and injured her wrist.

Lutz rushed to her and let go of the ladder wich retracted itself. Michael had in the meantime started to return fire. He managed to take down one cop before they had taken cover behind corners and cars. Michael hit a few of the cars, wich set of their alarms and a terrible screaming noise of three different caralarms filled the air and temporarely stunned the few who had taken cover behind them.

Michael saw that Lutz and Alys were relatively save behind the dumpster, but not for long as the other cops were now almost directly on top of them. Michael decided to take the risk of injury and climbed over the railing and let himself drop on the ground. He crouched down to absorb the fall.

"Can you run?" He asked Alys, as Lutz started to shoot the cops behind the cars in order to hold them back.

Michael grabbed his blaster and shot at the men above him. He hit two of them and the others crouched up against the wall behind the steps of the stairs.

"Yes. But I think I might have broken my wrist." she answered while she supported her right arm with her other arm.

"Good. Lutz, we gotta go." He said while he kept firing.

"Ok, on the count of three." said Lutz, who leaned against the dumpster and fired at the men still on the stairs. He hit one guy who fell over the railing onto the street. Only two were left on the stairs and four more behind the cars. They had a chance.

"One..." They had to run all the way to the end of the street.

"Two..." From there it was a good run to the train station wich would take them to the landing site, but if they could make it at least to the mall they would be save.

"Three!" Lutz and Alys got up and ran down the street, partially covered by the dupmster but in clear view of the men on the stairs. The men however, had to get out of their relatively save hideout in order to get a clear shot and as soon as they did that, Michael shot them. He killed one and hit the other in the shoulder, causing him to drop his gun.

Lutz and Alys had made it around the corner and Lutz started to return fire to cover Michael's escape. Michael got up and zig-zagged through the street trying to avoid enemy fire. He almost made it when he felt something hit his arm.

"Michael, you're bleeding." Lutz said as Michael turned the corner and he pointed at his arm.

"Damn," he said and looked at it. The shot had torn away a strip of suit on the back of his upper arm and ripped through the flesh. It was bleeding, but not bad. He was glad he didn't see bone.

"It's nothing, just a flesh wound." he said.

"You think you're still able to fly?" Lutz asked, while he returned fire around the corner.

"Yeah, ofcourse. Now let's go."

They ran of to the mall. It was empty.

"Strange," said Lutz as they rested shortly. "You'd expect them to call for back-up, but we've seen no one else except these guys."

"We're not there yet Lutz." said Michael, who returned fire.

"We're gonna make it right?" Alys asked.

"Of course we are honey. It's gonna be a breeze for us." Lutz kissed her on the forehead and lead them down the mall. They reached the exit to the train station and luckily they could catch the train just before it left. They sat down and Alys grabbed Michaels arm. She twisted it a bit so that the wound would be clearly visible in the light. Michael moaned a bit as she did.

"We need to cover that before it starts to infect." she said as she looked at Michaels shirt. He noticed it, but before he could react she had torn off a large piece and started to wrap it around his wound.

"Hey, that's a good shirt." he said.

"There," she said as she tied up the piece of shirt. "That'll do for a while. But you need to get a bandage, or it will get infected." She warned.

"Thanks, as soon as we get to the Arizona I'll have someone take a look at it." He looked into her eyes for a second and saw why Lutz had married this woman. She had to be scared, but yet there was no evidence for that. She acted with a calme and clear mind wich was usually seen with surgeons right before they had to do a lifesaving operation.

The train stopped at the staton and they got out. They ran to the exit of the station and Michael looked around the corner. He could see the Nova Sailor standing in front of the Defiant . All seemed to be clear.

He was just about to lead them to the ships, when he noticed a movement behind a small building, wich was part of the accomodation. He recognised a police uniform. He looked again and saw several more behind some crates.

"Damn." he said and looked at Lutz. "No way we can get to our ships. there are at least five cops hiding and probably more."

Just at that moment they heared a huge explosion. In front of them they saw a large column of smoke rise to the sky, lit by flames of a burning building. They could hear sirens in the distance and several other, smaller explosions. They heared the squealing engines of a few fighters. The fighters came closer and Michael could make out an Anubis followed by two regular Defenders. His heart skipped a beat because of the excitement of seeing that ship. It has to be him , he thought.

"Michael, isn't that an Anubis?" Lutz asked. He probably had the same idea.

"Yeah, you think it's him?"

"Could it be? That's a big stunt he pulled of then, If it is him."

"what are you talking about? What's going on up there?" asked Alys, who was confused.

"Baby," said Lutz, "If we're not mistaking, that's our way out of here." He turned to Michael. "You think you can make it to your ship?"

"Well, they are sort of distracted. Give Alys one of your guns and get your ass behind that car. You can both cover me and I can make it."

"A gun?" said Alys in protest, "No way, I'm not gonna shoot anybody. No way."

"You don't have to aim, just sort of shoot at them to keep their heads down." Michael tried to convince her. "That's the only way I can make it to my ship and contact our pal up there."

Just as he sad that, one of the defenders crashed into the field right behind the landing site, causing an explosion that shook the entire landing pad.

"Now!" shouted Michael and without waiting he ran of to his ship. He knew the cops were distracted by the crash and he could make it half way without being detected. Just as one of the more clever cops turned his attention back to the landingsite, Michael reached a large container.

He hid behind it and a couple of shots shot past the crate. Lets hope it doesn't explode like it does in the computergames , he thought.

Lutz and Alys had started shooting and actually managed to drive the cops back in to their hiding places. Michael recieved the signal from Lutz and ran to his ship. He quickly entered his ship and started up the engines and his shield.

He targeted the Anubis and opened a commchanel.

"Roger, is that you up there wreaking havoc?" Michael waited a second and then repeated his question. Nobody replied and he was about to give up when his comm crackled and the distinctive, but unclear voice of Roger O'Connor came through.

"...es Mich...l, I read you. ...ow are you?"

"I'm fine O'Connor, but you're signal is breaking up."

"...can't hear you. ... need help?"

"What? Do you need help? Come in O'Connor." Nothing. Michael feared the worst and when he saw a fighter going down in flames, he hoped sincerely it wasn't O'Connor.

Michael took of and hovered about ten meters above the deck. He turned around and aimed at the police officers. They were too stunned to do anything. Michael fired a few warningshots and the men chose wisely and fled. Lutz and Alys entered the Defiant and within seconds both ships rose to the cruise-hight of 500 meters.

"How are you guys doing?" Michael asked.

"We're ok. It's a bit crowded though. Can you see O'Connor?"

Michael checked his scanner and was relieved to see an Anubis heading towards their location and that he wasn't followed by an Armada of ships.

"You called?" O'Connors voice was clear and bright. Though he must have had a hell of a fight, Michael couldn't hear if O'Connor was tired. He must be tired , Michael thought, this man is full of surprises .

"Damn you O'Connor, you had us worried mate." Lutz said, "What are you doing here?"

"I'll tell you later, we need to get the hell out of here. I just blew up a military base and I'm pretty sure that the navy is coming."

"A military base? Damn," said Michael respectfully, "I'm surprised they aren't here already."

"Well, they will be here and if we hang around much longer and you can be sure they're gonna give us hell."

"You're right Lutz. O'Connor, do you have any bright ideas?"

"I don't think they're just gonna let us use the docking ring freely, so we need to distroy the controlpost first. The ring will be automatically set to manual. All we have to do is radio in and we're good to go."

"You make it sound so easy." Michael replied, "Lead the way Roger."

"you got it. Keep your eyes open at all times. They're bound to know we're coming."

Michael sighed; another suicide manouvre coming up he thought as he falled in behind O'Connor. But he knew just as Lutz and O'Connor did, that it was the only way out. An atmosphere take-off was to risky. The chance that one of them was gonna loose control of his ship in the attempt was far to big without a proper control tower.
A docking-ring escape was the only "save" way.

The controlpost was most likely heavily guarded so he prepared for a big fight. And if they managed to get of Manhattan, they still had to deal with the fleet of ships outside.

Again he couldn't deny that irritating fealing that lingered in his stomache and gave him the creapy feeling, something was about to go wrong.

Michael detected the controlpost and about a dozen Defenders waiting for them.

"I read about a dozen bad boys at twelfe o'clock, be ready for anything. 10k and closing."

He heared two short static clicks as O'Connor and Lutz silently replied.

In space 10k was quite a comfortable distance to start preparing for battle, but somehow Michael thought that the laws of physics applied diferently on a planet. Before he realised it he had to evade five missiles and fast.

He pulled up as O'Connor shouted on the radio to brake formation. The missiles all missed him somehow, but he had now four Defenders on his tail. Although these weren't the XS-type wich were probably needed at the front, the guns mounted on those defenders did some serious damage to his shield. And Michael realised very well that the defenders had the advantage of being smaller and lighter than Michael's Falcon. Therefore they were more agile and and a lot faster.

He banked hard to the left and felt the g-forces torturing his body and he could feal the wound in his arm starting to bleed again. He noticed his shieldintegrity dropping to almost zero. He deployed some bats and his shield regenerated to full capacity.

His instinct told him to drop mines, but his rationality told him that mines wouldn't work out here, as they would drop straight down due to the planets gravity. The same aplied for countermeasures, wich he found out as he deployed some in order to shake of a few missiles. Two of them hit home and his shield dropped to 10%. Michael pulled up and slowed down. Four defenders shot past him surpirsed by the manouvre, wich in turn surprised Michael a bit because it was concidered the oldest trick in the book.

Michael targeted the engine of one of the defenders and fired his Avarice and a missile. The bolts effectively erased it's shields and the missile hit home. The engine failed and the defender fell helpless to the ground.

He did a quick scan and noticed how Lutz and O'Connor had less trouble with the defenders the he did. They had each taken down two already.

He noticed how two defenders had turned around to take him head on. Michael grinned, this was in his advatage, his guns were more powerful and his shield was almost fully regenerated. He aimed and fired his Avarice again. He took down both their shields and pulled the trigger wich fired his other guns. But the Avarice had used up to much power and the guns didn't fire at all. The surprise stunned him while his enemies fired all they had. Just as his shield failed, Michael saw one of the defenders explode and O'Connors Anubis passed in front of Michael.

"Michael, distroy the controlcenter. it's directly below us. Lutz and I will hold of the defenders."

"You got it." said Michael who was kinda relieved to take a brake from the action, he wasn't sure if he'd survived it if Roger hadn't helped him. My arm must bother me more than I realised , he figured.

He circled down and soon he could see the controlpost. He fired a misile at it and hoped nobody was inside. The post exploded with a huge blast. He didn't realise that the missile was so distructive. In space, the vacuüm smothered the flames, but on a planet, especially on the oxigen-rich Manhattan, you could witness them at full force.
He looked at his scanner and saw that the status of the docking ring had changed from operator-control to Manual-control .

"We're good to go guys, docking-ring is set to manual."

"Just in time," said Lutz, "I got more bogeys inbound from the north and the southeast. About 50 in total."

"Sounds like a good time to leave." said O'Connor. "Follow me, lads. I'll lead you through."

"Wait." said Michael, What's our plan? we can be sure that a lot of Liberty fighters are waiting for us. Maybe even a Battleship and we won't be able to take down one, because the Fireblade is toast."

"Run like hell, that's what we're gonna do." O'Connor replied. "But in case it gets hot out there, you need to create a diversion for us Michael. I'll stay with Lutz and escort him out of the system."

"What are you talking Roger, Michael's coming with us. Nobody is creating any diversion, because nobody would survive that."

"No, he's right Lutz. It's the only way. My Falcon is a lot more agile and is therefore perfect for the job. O'Connor's Anubis has the strength and durability needed to protect you and Alys."

"No Michael, that's madness! You'll get killed! I won't let you do that, you hear, you're coming with us, no arguments."

Michael could here his friends desperation. But strangely he himself was in peace with the dicision. He knew all along that something like this was going to happen and had prepared himself for it ever since they left Malaga base.

"Don't worry Lutz, I'll be alright. Just get your ass to Bretonian space and get to the Arizona as soon as possible. I'll meet you there."

Michael waited for Lutz's protest, but he probably realized that it actually was the only chance they had to get to savety.

Lutz and O'Connor would take the tradelane to West Point and from there take the jumpgate or jumphole to California, wichever was save. Michael would try to delay the persuit until they reached California. Then he would have to escape on his own. He would probably try to get to the badlands and jump to texas and from there to Magallan.

He took a deep breath as O'Connor lead them through the docking-ring. This is it , he thought and left Manhattan.