(OOC: Lutz, CptSavage, I'm taking the story to space if you don't mind. there's not much story left at New Harlem)

Three man in an equipment dealer shop at Planet New Harlem. Quite a strange group, if you concider their backgrounds; All three Manhattan Officers-training graduates, all three succesfull in their carreers as Navy/Police officers. And now, all three wanted by the Liberty gouvernement.

Arrigoni: Well, if we want to leave undetected, now is our chance. Up there, everyones attention is focused at some wanted man.

Arrigoni raises his thumb upwards, indicating space while talking about "up there".
Michael and Lutz take a quick look at each other. Michael waited for Lutz to make a dicision.

Lutz: Okay, let get outa here, I've been wasting my time for to long. This rock ain't worth it.

*Lutz gets back into his ship and follows Michael and Arrigoni to the landingpad*

Michael: This is Freelancer trading party, to Planet New Harlem Docking ring control, requesting permission to take off.

Docking ring control (DrC): This is docking ring control to Trading party, you're clear to depart.

Michael: And off we go!

Space was actually the only place Michael could relax. Lots of room to get away when he needed to.
Michael looked at his scanner. It was showing just two ships, Lutz's Defender and Arrigoni's Dromadary. He was actually surprised to see that they showed up, as he normally could only detect static objects like planets.
At least now he had company who could warn him about incomming hostiles.

Michael: Switching to secure channel #215.5. Lutz, You know where we're going, take the lead.

Michael and Arrigoni took up posistion near Lutz, each on the other side.

BIG EDIT!!! : Nickless, you posted as I was typing! Story writers please read this one, then Nickless' post above, makes more sense sort of I think... Ermm.. Wizard, if you can swap them around, don't know of you can do that??

Lutz sat gazing out of the window. Arrigoni and Michael were off to the edge worlds. A good place. No cops, no one hunting him. He could lie low, figure a way out of this mess. But he needed to get to that research station. The main capacitor on the particle cannon was out, and he needed it fixed before he went anywhere. Problem was that on his own he'd be in the brown stuff, particle cannon or no. He needed to leave with Michael, he needed a good pilot at his side, and Arrigoni made it two.
Damn.
Jumping out of the Defender-xs he walked the computer terminal at the equipment dealers, making a connection to the research station. He'd looked into the capacitor that he'd need, and it was gonna cost a lot. Small, low heat output, and a good chemical mix in it to reduce resistance.
The connection was made to the research station. Their (OCC: OK, I'm going to introduce a "Website" or equivalent here) site was good, listing all parts and stuff that they sold, being a specialist wholesaler of circuitry for ship builders, but it also told of new developments being made. Sadly, no capacitors were in project, and the ones for sale simply weren't powerful enough. He wrote a mail out to the chief researcher detailing what he'd need, what power drains were expected, and to build a small capacitor capable of with standing that sort of pressure. The problem of paying crossed his mind, but a quick hack into the low grade system revealed the standing order set up with the company, so he put it on that. Normally Lutz wouldn't have considered such an deed, but this was a desperate time, and he needed his ship fully working. With the sort of research knowledge that he knew it was entirely possible that a cruiser would be sent after him, and the particle cannon could take even a cruiser out it two or three well placed shots.
Lutz decided on a change of pan. All replies to the mail would be routed to his neural net, and he'd have to wait for it to be built. He couldn't hang around here too long in case some passer by recognised him. No, the safest thing he could do would be to leave with Michael and Arrigoni and pick up the capacitor later, or make a trip to the station, see hwat it was like out there. Most stations had their own patrols, and little military authority around them. All three of them could do with a break from hunters of all kinds. He checked out commoditiy needs for the station. Cobolt, Mercury, Nickel. Base metals mainly. The station they were all docked at seemed to carry some items. The profit wouldn't be large, but seen as he was on his way... Arrigoni would make a fair whack though, assuming he had capitla. That Dromedary of his was BIG...
---------------

Lutz was turning the corner to leave when he bumped into his new found allies.

Lutz: Are we ready?
Both men nodded, and moved off.
Lutz: You may wnat to buy some of the more base material commodeties. The research station to the north west* has need of them, and I'm heading off there.
Arrigoni: Way ahead of you, I got a full hold
Micael: Ditto Lutz. We're ready when you are.

Lutz nodded. It was good to work with professionals. These two may not be officially professional now, but they had all the training and experience behind them, and now they were freelancing. Somehow it worked better, though Lutz couldn't fathom why...

Scant moments later and the Freelancing trading party was under way, Michael having completed the take off proceedures. He set a course in for the trade lane docking ring (Abbreviate?) and set off. Michael was on the left, Arrigoni on the right. Lutz broke formation, swung round to the right of Arrigoni, and hit the throttle to max. The two fighters looked like a good escprt, a good disguise, should one come in need... and more than likley, it would be needed, or something at least would be needed for the three fugitives.


* North West, I know, not a great term in space. But seen as FL doesn't deal with orbits, and I'm using Nickless' map, I thought it'd be easier.

EDIT: I've adapted my post to Nickless' too. Bit of confusion here guys, please bear with us all!


Edited by - Lutz on 27-07-2003 22:28:29

Edited by - Lutz on 27-07-2003 22:39:23

Edited by - Lutz on 27-07-2003 22:41:00

Michael checked his navmap with the updated course Lutz send him. Destination, Hunter Research Station just northwest of this system.
After that it was straight of to the edge worlds.
The Edge worlds were new to him. As a police officer his travels were limited to Liberty space, even when on short leave. And as a rennegade, he only went to Brittonia space and Rheinland. Trading gold and Engine components back and forth.
But the Edge Worlds are something completely different. The people there are tougher, more dedicated if you will.
Nothing at all like the little weazels that call themselves Xenos.

As Lutz entered the tradelane to the Research station, Michael looked at his scanner again, it was blank this time. Tipicaly. But he was on his way to a research station now. Surely someone out there could fix his scanner.
He felt the G-forces pulling him back into his chair, as the tradelane accelerated them to an uncomfortably high speed. He heard of some ill-maintananced tradelanes in the tau-systems where sometimes astroids could get through, he quivered as he immagined what it would be like, crashing into an astroid at this insane speed. At least it would be over before you'd realise what happened.

Suddenly...

Arrigoni & Lutz: What the hell!!!

Arrigoni: Was that a Liberty cruiser that just poped up and off my long-range scans?

Michael: What?! a Cruiser? What's that doing here?

Lutz: Don't know. It disappeared from my scanner so we're probably out of it's scanning range. But all the more reason to get the hell out of here.

Michael: the sooner the better. I doubt it was looking for us, but I don't want to be around to find out.

*Group popped out of the tradelane*

Arrigoni: Nothing better then the sight of an abandoned research station.

Michael: Lets knock and see if anyone is home then. This is Freelancer Trading Party to Hunter Research station, we need to dock.

Research station (RS): This is Hunter, we have you on our scanners, you are clear to dock.

*group docking*

Michael got out of his ship and looked around. Hunter was a brand new station, but it was put together by secondhand scrapmetal. Or so it seemed. The lights were flickering and the walls were rusty. The equipment in the shop was stuffed in some kind of big dumpster. He doubted anyone here could repair anything, let alone Research anything. He walked up to Lutz and Arrigoni who allready were at the commodity shop.

Lutz: ...some basic suplies.

Commodity dealer shop (CdS): well, just put it over there and i'll upload you the trade-in value to your neural net.

Lutz turned to Michael and Arrigoni...

Lutz: Won't be long guys. I just received a message concearning my request for some capacitors I need for my guns. It says I can pick them up in the...

Lutz looked at his message pad

Lutz: ...Devellopers room, where ever that may be.

CdS: that's through the bar to the left down the corridor and the last door on the right. Can't miss it.

Lutz: allright then, I'll be right back.

Michael: Lutz, can you ask if anyone in there is capable of repairing a scanner? Just send 'em to me, i'll be here cashing in my credits.

Lutz wandered of to the devellopers room, as Michael showed the dealer his commodities he stuffed away in the last few corners of his ship. The gold used up most of the space.

CdS: The gold you can keep son, i'm more interested in those foodrations you got.

The dealer took whatever ration he could bear and went to the counter.
Michael took the rest.

CdS: Your card please, sir, so I can transfer your credits.

Arrigoni: I hope Lutz doesn't take too long. That Cruiser out there gives me the nerves.

Michael: Me too. What are you running away from anyway?

(OOC: Lutz, coincidense, I was typing this one when you were editing we're to fast for eachother
Somethings might not make to much sense or any at all, but I gave it my best.
Be back tomorrow, CptSavage, take her away )

Edited by - Nickless on 28-07-2003 00:10:11

Lutz wandered down the corridor into the developement room. Odd that it had been completed so quickly he thought. But that was the last thing on his mind. That dmned Cruiser had scared thehell out of him. Good as the XS was it was in no condition to fight a cruiser. Although with a little luck with the particle cannon...
He wandered into the science lab, this developers room.

Lutz: Hi, I'm here for the capacitor?
A nearby man turned around
Scientist: "Welcome, my names Froan, I'm head of developement. Your capacitor is ready, although how you knew I don't know...?"
Lutz's mind worked overtime, something wasn't right here...
Froan: "The order has been duplicated, would you like one or two of them?"
Duplicated? Hwat was going on here? How could there be a duplication?
Lutz: "How long did this take to make may I ask?"
Froan perked up, obviously exceited hat someone was taking an interest in his work : "Well, the folding of the metal had to sub contracted, and teh chemical balance took a while to get right, but it was the size thatw as the problem. So powerful and yet small enough to fir in a fighter. It took about 2 weeks in total. Remarkably quick I must say, you must wan this fast?"
Lutz: "Erm, yeah. Yeah, we do thanks. Can I ask when the second order came in?"
Froan: "A bit earlier today. It cam from the station on the other side of New Harlem"
Lutz: "Oh! Sorry, my fault, I was docked there, picking up suplies. Something went weird on the ship as it was interfaced to the comms computer, there was an attack or something. Anyway, the message must have been sent again in error"
Froan: "Ah... no problem. These things happen. I'll cancel your second order, no worries. I'll arrange for the capacitor to be installed in your ship. I must say that I normally don't deal with, ahem, outlaws or such like as yourselves, but the challenge made me think about it, and I welcome a challenge. Now how about payment? £402,458 credits the end bill is."
Lutz: "Once I have tested it I will pay in full."
Froan: "Certainly. And of course, I'll trace you should you run on me!" The old man cackled at the poor joke.
Froan" Can I have your naem please, just to sign off and for audit purposes?"

Lutz walked to the door: "Terranova. Vincenzo Terranova" He called as he left.
Froan: "No worries! And remember to pay up, or I'll have the guild on to you!" the old man cackled away to himself "Super capacitor indeed.

Lutz headed back for Michael and Arrigoni, quickly .

Lutz: "Guys, we gotta leave here, fast "
Michael: "Whasup man?"
Lutz: "I just got the capacitor free. You know that huge guy in the bar, the one in teh fight? Terranova? I just dropped him a bill for over £400,000. I've only got a couple of thousand to my name...
Arrigoni whistles...
Michael: "Are you mad!? That guy looked very dangerous"
Lutz: " Hey, what's he gonna do in space? We're all in ships remeber. Now that I have that capacitor I'm a bit happier. ALl I gotta do now is figure how to get Alys off of Manhatten with out the Police or Navy catching me..."
Arrigoni: "Erm, going back a bit here, what do you need a custom made capacitor for?"

Lutz looked at Arrigoni: "Hope you never find out. I'll be waiting in the docking bay, I'm ready when you are. Oh, I'd stock up on optical chips if I were you, good price here."

Lutz left the room, leaving Arrigoni and Michael behind

Arrigoni: "What do you think? What do you think that ship of his has got? I mean, it's just a Defender right?"
Michael: "I dunno. It's got some odd looking weapons, it's been modded for sure, and the armour looks a lot tougher. But I can't see why he'd need a large powered capacitor, nor why he'd drop that Terranova guy a £400,000 bill..."

Back in the docking aby Lutz puzzled over the problem of who'd placed that first order. Who would want a capacitor of such extreme power... Unless they had particle beam cannons? Then it hit him. The two Rougues who stole the Defender-xs's on the jail break...
The sheer power of a weapon like this in the hands of the Rogues, Lutz wasn't impressed.

OCC: Laters all. See you in about 9 hours! Wizard, get your wallet out mate!


Edited by - Lutz on 28-07-2003 00:47:33

*Terranova, Pswahn, Connor , and cruiser's captain came closer*

Quigley : Now what's this all about? Who wants you dead?
Danson : The Pirates, they wanted to have the..
Roger : You can talk they know already.
Danson : They wanted to have the plan of this ship, but I said no. I never gave them anything.
Roger : That means that you didn't betray us afterall?
Danson : No, they wanted to make you think so... I guess.
Connor : Who was those pirates and why were you running from us?
Danson : I thought that you were part of that pirate grup. I did manage to saw some higly powerful weapons mounted on weird Defenders . Sir, (looking at Roger ) those weapons can even destroy Vengence once it's shields are down.
Roger : What else do you know about them? Where is their base and how strong is it?
Danson : They didn't take me to their base, but I found out that most of them are using house technolocy. They are very well armed for pirates.

*a moment of silence*

Danson : I think that they have an outpost near New Harlem, because they changed personell who was guarding me in past 4 days over 10 times.
Terranova : What are we going to do about it?
Roger : I don't know about we but I'm going to see what that threat is---Denson , you are re-enstaited to chief mechanic\techinc whtever positsion you were before. And could someone prepeare Echo squad for launch! If you (looking at newcomers to his cruiser) are going to help me then prepeare your ships too, if not then you have about 3 hours until leaving. My crew is in you service in the meantime.

*Terranova, Pswahn, Connor and Quigley looked a eachother, Captain O'Connor used this time to issue some commands to his crew*

O'Connor : Danson u'd better go and see wahts the problem with main guns, they seemed to be jammed.
Denson : Yes, Sir
O'Connor : Could someone here tell the maintence officer to put some coffee on!

*Terranova, Pswahn, Connor and Quigley having discussed this matter came to Roger *

Pswahn : Well whatver we decided we want the money Denson ows us.
O'Connor : But yes, ofcourse. And a little exta if you help me find their main base, I'm not asking you to attack it just to help me find it. But it's all up to you either you come or not.

{OOC: Well I think some action could come in handy}
----------------------------------------
Knight who wears White

Edited by - White Knight on 28-07-2003 03:32:38

Edited by - White Knight on 28-07-2003 03:33:48

Arrigoni dumped his cargo with Scientist running commodoties on the station. Taking the suggestion, he loaded up on Optical Chips.

He walked out to look at the mysterious Defender. Wasn't like anything he'd flown in his days. The Armor was conditioned to look like the standard armor on a normal Navy Issue Defender, but was obviously far different. The Weapons where strange.......custom capacitor? For A particle weapon. He remembered his navy days and a strange coincidence popped into his brain. He heard about a special flight program. He applied, but at the time his flight skills weren't polished enough and he rejected and given a better assignment instead....could this be the product of that program? He Returned to the Rusty Camel for a cigar, the question still looming on his mind.

Quigley turned off the paint spayer and looked at his handy work. The replacement fin for his Patriot was the ugly Liberty gray. He'd managed to bribe a tech to show him where they stored the paint and spayers. He'd been lucky to find a shade that matched his electric blue paint job. Now his ship was back to normal. Quigley was cleaning up when he heard multiple crashes and a string of curses that would wilt plants.

The source was Terranova, and seeing this Quigley ducked behind his fighter knowing Terranova's level of rage. He waited until the fiery rage subsided and then yelled from behind his fighter.

Quigley: Calm down, Vince. Nothing can be that bad to require all that racket.

Terranova: You can say that! You're not missing 400 grand from your bank account. The bill says "capacitor." I never ordered one and anyway what capacitor is worth that much?

Quigley stepped out from behind his fighter.

Quigley: Where is the charge from?

Terranova: Some Hunter Research Station.

Quigley: That's a near here, about 45 klicks. Vince, off the top of your head, what could you do with a capacitor that price.

Terranova: Run a gunboat or station.

Quigley: Agiera has been making moves on minimizing componets.

Terranova: A small, very expensive capacitor? I don't know what you'd do with that but power a weapon.

Quigley: Remember what Danson said about wierdly armed Defenders?

Terranova: The Pirates!

Quigley: And they're at Hunter. We can get them, your creds, and some answers.
I'm going to talk to Connor and set course for Hunter. You'd better ready for heavy combat.

Grinning evily.

Terranova: Gladly.

OOC: I will be gone for a week so don't do anything important without me! Or perhaps more reasonably, nothing that would bring my character into this. I'm really interested in this thing, and I want to get involved sometime. (It doesn't look like we'll be getting into Rheinland any time soon, where my guy is. So there shouldn't be any problem with my absence). See you soon!

Lutz, Arrigoni and Michael had all filled up there holds with the chip optical chips, and bought the minor bits and pieces of equipment needed in running a ship. The hunters maintenance personnel weren't very well trained, the loading of well over 200 tonnes (I'll say tonnes, sounds better than units) of optical chips into Arrigonis Dromedary took more than a while.
Lutz was seething, the time delays were going to prove costly. He had to escape before that Terranova guy found them, and bank transfers were either stupidly slow or ludicrously quick. He prayed for the first, but in reality most research stations had top of the range money machines, because if they didn't they'd be starving by the end of the week. Odds on Terranova had already traced the payment here and was on his way. It'd be interesting when he found out about it though. He seemed to be a good guy this Terranova, or at least neutral. Well, more neutral than bad. He just had a bad rep for anger. When he traced the order to them pirates it might be enough to swing him onto his side to fight them. Thos two other Defender-xs's could NOT be allowed to remain in the hands of those escaped criminals, they were to be destroyed or captured. The good news was that as far as he know the particle cannons on them ships wouldn't work. Lutz had the only ship with a working design. He needed to maintain this, but how? The computer records could be easily enough to wipe, but the chief scientist, Froan, how would he deal with him? So many problems. The Liberty Navy were after him, he had virtually zero cash, at least two escaped convicts would be after him before long and now this Terranova guy would be after him unless he could vanish fast enough, or talk faster. On the plus side a second capacitor would take about two weeks to make. Why had the pirates only made one? They had two Defenders-xs's…
He quickly accessed the local news on his neural net, searching for stories about any pirates ships being attacked. He could only find the standard stuff; Navy destroys for fighters; Cardamine smuggling ring smashed… nothing about any odd fighters being reported. He was about to switch it off, when an odd headline caught his eye. "Liberty against Liberty?" He quickly read the story… He'd found them. A freighter pilot had reported what appeared to be a group of Liberty Defenders fighting each other. One had escaped, but one had had it's engines crippled and had been left to drift. It had happened over in the Dark Matter cloud in New Harlem, 16 days ago. So, one had escaped, one was adrift, probably destroyed by now in that seething mass of horror. Probably.
Shutting the connection down he strapped himself in an flicked open the comms.

Lutz: "Michael, Arrigoni; Are we ready lads?"
Both men signed in as affirmative.
Michael: "This is Freelancer trading party to Hunter docking control, request permission to leave dock."
HDC: "Freelancer trading party, permission granted. Have a safe flight."

The main hanger doors opened. Michaels Falcon flew straight out, and drifted outside waiting. Arrigonis Dromedary looked like it wouldn't fit, but after a couple of minutes of delicate manoeuvring The Camel was out of dock. Lutz followed swiftly after, taking up the starboard flanking position next to the Dromedary. And a sight he'd dreaded to see was before him, the Liberty Cruiser they so narrowly escaped had just exited the trade lane, along with a small wing of fighters that Lutz knew Terranova would be in.

----------------------------------------------------

Terranova gazed at the Dromedary as it left Hunter Station. It was reported to have been headed this way, following the events of the bar fight, the events that had made him part of a cruiser fleet. They were big and no mistake. A Falcon drifted close by seemingly unawares as the giant ship that had just left the tradelane. Suddenly from round the other side of the Dromedary he saw what he was after, one of those damned Defenders! Whacking his throttle up to max he blasted after it.

Terranova: "This is Terranova to all Cruiser Fleet ships, leave that damned Defender alone! He's mine! He owes me half a million, and I'm having it!"
Quigley: "I thought it was 400,000?"
Terranova: "Never heard of interest? Now stay out of this!"
Quigley: "Roger." Jees, that's high interest rates! He thought to himself.

Glazing to his is right he saw Terranova's odd looking ship balsting ahead.
Quigley slowed down with the remainder of the Cruiser Fleet, about 3 clicks away from the station and like the rest of them, raised shields and watched the ensuing dance unfold before them.

----------------------------------------------------

Lutz quickly looked at the small fleet of ships, and noticed one of them heading this way. Powering up his shields Lutz blasted off.

Lutz: "Michael, Arrigoni. That fleet is stationary, but that fighter is heading this way. I'm guessing it's my good old pal Terranova. Stay outta this, no matter what happens. We can't take down that whole fleet."
Michael: "You sure? I can lend a hand..."
Lutz: "Negative Michael, but thanks. If you jump in, those other fighters will too. I'm gonna talk to Terranova. Appeal to his better nature."

The Defender-xs leaped forward to meet the charge of Terranova's ship. As expected gun fire flashed all around him as they made the first pass. At least half the bullets had hit, splashing over the shields of the Defender. As Lutz swung round to try and fall in behind he noted his shield gauge. A quarter had been taken off! This guy was good . A standard Defender would probably have been torn apart by now. Lutz tried his best to fall in behind the enraged Terranova, but the guy was slippery. He flicked open a com channel, non-secure, hoping the whole fleet would listen.

Lutz: "Terranova. Calm down, let me talk."
Terranova: "Unless you got my half million I ain't interested in what you've got to say"
Lutz: "Half a million? I believe the bill was just over 400,000?"
Terranova: "Ah! So you admit stealing from me! You'll pay for that. And the extra 100,00 is interest. But as you can't pay I'll take it out of your ships hull"

Terranova had cut engines and drift round, once again facing Lutz. Kicking his engines back on he made another pass. Several round hits, but the Defender-xs strafed a rolled past him, missing his cockpit by a mere foot or so.

Lutz: "Outta my ship? Over my dead body. Look, Terranova I can explain, just hold up firing"
Terranova: "Hold up my a$$, you're dead meat sonny, you messed with the wrong guy!"

Lutz was once again in the firing line, and this time his Defender-xs took a serious battering, the shields almost gone. Lutz flicked his weapons on, his temper flaring.

O'Conner: "Defender pilot, you seem to be in a bit of bother there. Got about 500,000 spare by chance?"

That was it! Lutz flipped on the particle cannon, and armed two cannonball missiles. He swung the Defender-xs round to the Cruiser and hit the afterburners.

Lutz: "Damn you Terranova, I'm going to MAKE you listen. I'm not the enemy! Yes I stole your money, but I had a damned good reason to do so! There's somebody out there that could cause unknown chaos, civil war, war between Houses, ANYTHING."
Terranova: "Not the enemy? So if you're not that enemy why did you steal the money?" Terranovas voice was filled with rage, and he was only a click behinds the Defender, and closing.
Lutz: "Why? This is why! And bear in mind, some criminal out there has got this too!" Lutz targeted the shield generator on the top of the cruiser, where the armour was heaviest. The Cannonballs screamed away, one after the other. Cannonballs weren't designed for shields, they were hull cripplers. But there was a way of slipping one through before a generator could recover. The first impacted against the shields of the cruiser, the flash of energy glowing like an aurora. The second one slipped through, the generator not quite quick enough to compensate for the blast. The second one crashed into the generator itself and detonated. The blast destroyed the whole generator, the shields around the top half of the ship fell away.

Lutz: "This is why I stole your money! Gaze upon death"

The particle cannon was set for a 0.5 second burst, about a sixth of it's total output, and Lutz squeezed the trigger. Unlike before against the Xenos, this time it fired. Froan had done his job well. The beam tore into the armour plating of the cruiser, plates buckled and warped, entire sections simply boiled away. Cracks appeared all over the surrounding sections, and were glowing white hot as the energy for the beam was dissipated. The cruiser looked like it had a giant open sore across it, boiling and bleeding molten metal. Suddenly the comms were alive as everyone spoke at once;

O'Conner: "What the hell are you doing! We haven't attacked you! Stand down now!"
Michael: "Sweet Jesus!"
Arrigoni : "#whistling noise"
Terranova: "What the hell is that thing!?"
Lutz: "Now stand down Terranova! If you don't you're next with this thing."
Terranova: "OK, talk. Fast"
Lutz: "It's a particle beam cannon. Developed by the top minds at the Liberty Research Labs at Alaska. It disintegrates the molecular bond of all particles, and the plasma stream absorbs that tremendous amount of energy and blasts it further into the target. You know nuclear fission? It's like that!"
Michael: "Are you saying that sucker in nuclear?!"
Lutz: "No, just very similar. It's completly useless against shields as shields have no matter, just force. But against material, no matter how strong, it's unstoppable. In most cases the tougher your armour the more damage it does, because the armour is more denser, therefore more atoms, therefore more bonds and thus more energy to use. And there's someone out there that's got this technology, and they were sentenced to be locked up in a maximum security prison out in Alaska. There's isn't working, at least I don’t think so. But it's only a matter of time. I have to stop them"

On the bridge of the damaged cruiser Dansen nudged O'Conner:
Dansen: That's why they wanted the plans for that ship! Add that weapon to it, it'll be lethal… I think we should believe that guy"
O'Conner: "Terranova stand down, we all need to talk, and I need to repair this ship. And Lutz I'm billing you."
Terranova: "And you owe me 600,000"
Lutz, Laughing: "Sorry guys, all I got to my name is about 500 credits and a hold of optical chips. And Terranova you can stow the interest, you're getting the 400,000 and that's it.
O'Conner: "Well you better earn your way then. And I can't speak for Terranova on the matter either"
Terranova: "Meh. It's only a few thousand"
Quigley: "Vince, you was mad as hell before? Why did you hunt that guy down if you don't care about the money?"
Terranova: "The principle of course. And it's only pocket change"

Lutz laughed loud to himself, he was warming to the guy for sure.
Terranova pulled up along side. He gazed through his cockpit at Lutz.
Terranova: "Nice ship. The Defiant. After that attack I can see why. A Defender against a cruiser. *Shakes head* So what do they call you?"

Lutz grinned: "The Widowmaker."

Within moments all the fighters were docked at Hunter for repairs and supplies, and work began on repairing the cruiser.

----------

OCC: Ten points for spotting the line from Back to the Future! Couldn't resist!

Edited by - Lutz on 28-07-2003 14:00:58

OOC: I'm impressed I like it how you guys make up the story
OOC 2: sorry guys, I was very busy with work.

While repairing the ships and the cruiser Vincenzo started to realise that Lutz is not only a nice guy... but also a nice with a big-assed gun. A gun that Terranova wanted aswell. "Maybe I should be real friendly to Lutz for quite a while", Vinnie told himself.

Terranova: (shouts) Lunch break! And becuase Lutz paid me, I'm going to buy you something exotic. Ho about a plate of "Carribean Salt & Pepper Snapper". But be aware, it's very spicy!

Terranova was wondering why Connor "Eraser" was so quiet. He hasn't spoken for quite some time now. Maybe he isn't much of a social person, Terranova figured.

OOC:

---

Michael: "Are you saying that sucker in nuclear?!"

---

Found it

Edited by - Nickless on 30-07-2003 09:50:25

OOC: Ten points to Nickless!
OOC2: Wizard, WB! Erm, I didn't pay you though.You let me off. I hope you don't mind, but I decided that your character should be wadded . Glad you like the story BTW.
IC:

All the pilots and the crew members of the cruiser had deceided to make the repairs themselves. The maintenance pepople of Hunter Station weren't up to the task of repairing a giant ship like that cruiser.
Lutz heard the call for lunch, and moved swiftly, hunger knawing at his stomach. He moved forward to the huge platter of fodd that Terranova had provided and wolfed three Snappers down before the spice kicked in. And boy did it kick it!
As Lutz was choking on the food Terranova laughed and passed over a cool pint of what appeard to be a brownish liquid.

Lutz: "What's this?" He croaked
Terranova: "An old receipe form home. They called it ale. Good stuff"
Lutz downed the glass, the spiciness receeding. All around him people were stuggling a little with the Snappers, but tha brown "ale" seemed to be enough to stove of the fires of hell. Terranova was unconcernedly munching on his fifth.
Terranova: "So what's the plan? You got an idea for that gun of yours?"
Lutz: "Hmph. Not really. The only thing I truely care about is getting back to my wife."
Terranova: "Married long?"
Lutz: "A few years. We were about to start trying for a baby. F..king Navy a*seholes!" he screamed, launching his empty glass at a nearby wall.
Terranova: "Hey, relax man. We'll get you there. But first we gotta sort out all this armour plating. Your gun tor it to pieces."
Lutz controls the shaking of his shoulders: "Hmph, that was about a sixth of what it can unleash. In the wrong hands, if it's duplicated, who knows what could happen?"
Terranova: "Don't worry, we stole the files from the station computers, and "accidentally" slipped a virus on board. It's wiping everything even remotely conected to the capacitor. Michael tells me the last Defender-xs hasn't got one right? So we're pretty covered. That scientist bloke, Froan, he's coming along. O'Conner hired him to sort out the main gun on his cruiser, and to tweak the odd system or two. Gonna take a while so the guy volunteered to come along. As I understand it there's no other guy on this base who can make that capacitor. Who knows though, there may be others elsewhere."
Lutz: "Good work. hey, I'm sorry about the cash OK? I was a bit desperate. I intended on hunting down the remaining pirate, destroying his ship. Having the Particle cannon would have greatly aided me."
Terranova shakes his head: "No worries, but you owe me a favour OK?"
Lutz: "Sure."
Lutz shakes Terranova's hand and goes to aid with the armour plating, which was now in place and being bolted down. Over 30 tonnes of scrap metal had been salvaged from the Cruiser. 30 tonnes of the toughest armour imaginable turned into molten slurry in half a second. What the hell was the world coming too? Lutz reasoned it would be one hell of a ship that stood up to a blast from that gun. It was too powerful.
Lutz, to himself: "After I catch that rogue I'm destroying this one. No-one should have it."
Munching on the last Snapper he wandered off to check his ship over.

Lutz: "... I intended on hunting down the remaining pirate, destroying his ship...."

Those words, the word "pirate" in specific kept repeating in his head. Suddenly it was 17 years ago. Vincenzo was a little 5 year Vinnie at that time. His parents owned a trading company: La Ditta di Commercio di Terranova, or DCT for short. They were stationed on the planet of Torino.

That day was one like the others. A shipment of water had to be sent to New Sicili, because it hadn't rained for weeks there. It was a suprise attack, while they were sleeping, (the ship was flying to the tradelanes by EVA, their auto-pilot) the pirates disabled the tradelane and attacked the Humpback they were flying. Just before the ship exploded Christiano (Vinnie's dad) pushed Vincenzo in the escape pod adn disconnected it from the Humpback. When Vinnie looked out of the window the pirates already dissapeared, they didn't need the water. The Humpback was there, but not in one piece anymore. It got shot to pieces, and that hull explosion didn't help much either. From that day, Vincenzo Terranova swore that he would take revenge. No pirate was save when he left New Roma at the age of 18. How many bounty hunters missions did he do? 50? 100? He stopped counting after 40.

Terranova, to himself: "I need to get to know his weak spots..."

Michael was completely surprised by that cruiser!!! (through a tradelane?!?!)

*thinks* Damnit, I thought they fixed that thing.
as he smashed his scanner, wich had now gone completely blank, accept for the words "Off Line" blinking red on his display.
And if that wasn't bad enough Lutz started an impressive space ballet performance with this guy Terranova. Man he was pissed, I would be to, after the trick Lutz pulled. Using Terranova's account to pay for his capacitors.
At first it seemed paying $400,000 for a pieced-together roll of metal, but one shot from Lutz's particle gun, and Michael was convinced that 400,000 was actually a fair price.
That gun cracked a hole in the hull of that cruiser like it was nothing, and he didn't even fire at 100%.
It kinda made him wonder. If people could make weapons like that, he might want to concider armour and weapons, or at least better a better ship. He was fond of his Falcon. The Nova Sailor had gotten him through some bad situations, but it had his limitations. Better be safe than sorry.

After the incident between Lutz and Terranova, they boarded the damaged cruiser.
They were to address the ship hull situation after lunch, or dinner, or whatever. He couldn't remember the last time he had a good meal and he'd kill for a good Titan Liver steak and a nice cold Britonian beer on the side.
All they had was Carribean Salt & Pepper Snappers and man they were hot 'n spicy.

Michael sat next to Arrigoni.

Michael: Looks like they made up eh?

Arrigoni: That's probably just self preservation. That Terranova guy is terribly strong. That was a pretty wild guess Lutz took.

Michael: Well, for the time being, I'd say we're allright. It might be better though, to keep an eye on Terranova, just to be sure.

The meal had actually tasted quite good and both Michael and Arrigoni got up and walked to the landing bay, where they met up whit the others to start working on the busted hull.

(OOC: whoops, forgot to exclude my sig )

Edited by - Nickless on 28-07-2003 16:51:55