---Omicron Major system, somewhere in the Edge Nebula---

Alien organisms swirled and fluttered around the black crystal field that dominated this system. The system, right in the middle of the Edge Nebula was a huge mass of swamp green. Nomad visits were rare, and visits by humans were rarer. So any local of the system with a capable brain might have been suprised to see the massive RNC Goethe battleship wade through the system. Several Valkryes swarmed upon it as it neared a station construction site. "RNC Goethe this is Iron Hammer three, please submit your designation". The battleship slowed to a halt. "Roger that, submitting designation Iron Hammer three" came the staticky reply. "Hmmm...everything seems to be in order Goethe, procede"

The huge battleship started moving forward again and appeared in a area that had been all but cleared of nebula clouds. A large station was being built and it was heavily defended. The odd flash of light came from the top area where a lot of the workers were visible. They were working in vac-suits, hurridly constructing defenses and crew quarters. But they stopped to stare in wonder as the massive Battleship prepared to moor. As it entered the specially designed L-shaped battleship moor, tubes shot out, connecting the crew of the battleship with that station and heavy lifters swarmed over the battleship transporting all sorts of things. The commodore removed the scanner
from his left eye and rubbed them wearily. He was the last to leave the now empty bridge and he stumbled along the connection tube towards the station while dodging the fresh exchange crew that was now rushing aboard. Using his hands to steady himself and shuffled down seemingly endless sterile grey walkways until he found his cabin. As he fell into the bunk and almost instantaneous sleep they appeared.

The huge Order fleet decloaked themselves in front of the Rheinland base camp. Faces everywhere turned to look in amazement and horror as the impossibly huge fleet grew closer. Then suddenly space was full of missiles, torpedos and tachyon bursts. The technicians working in vac-suits in the outer areas of the base suffered the most. As missiles rainded down shockwaves blasted out, warping internal organs, defeaning workers and sending hundreds of less lucky people flying out into the abyss. Tachyon and laser bursts annhilated groups of workers and torpedos punched massive holes in the station's hull sending hundreds more into the vacum.

The Goethe, hit by several torpedos and endless missile and tachyon bursts simply exploded and the Anubis's ripped through the Valkryes signalling the first defeat of the new Rheinland republic and waking Rheinland up to the fact that there is a force as capable as theirs and with extensive knowledge of the Edge Nebula. Hundreds of thousands of light years away the Chancellor recieved first news of this attack and apparent defeat of Rheinland forces. He sent everyone in his room away and gazed out thorugh the window at the softly falling snowflakes. "This could be a problem....."

To be continued

Hasta la victoria siemprè! (Ever onward to victory) - Ernesto Che Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Location: Prometheus Base, Red World
Time: 0:46 AM

Arania turned in his sleep, breathing heavily, muttering:
"no, no, fall b... you cnt... order"
he turned again
"Ordr.... Theta... Rheinland.... Evacu..."
His eyes flickered
"No.. fusion... gate... prom..."
"NO!!!!!!"
He sat straight up, sweating. Araminta woke, startled and burst into flame.
He looked around the room ****ily, trying to make sense of a very horrific dream.
Swinging his legs over the bed, he gathered Araminta of her perch and put her on his shoulder.
Araminta put herself out as Arania slowly walked to the contol deck.
Walking onto the empty deck he chucked as he saw a holographic person sleeping in the comm chair, snoring his head off.
"I didn't know you snored, Prometheus' Arania joked, standing behind the holographic form of the AI.
The holograph ****ed as Prometheus 'awoke' from standby.
"I think you should see this" Prometheus said, pointing to the console.
Arania sat down on the chair, looking at the three objects on the screen.
One was his dream log, the other was a news report, and the last was a particle movie.
He read the article:

ORDER ATTACKS RHEINLAND CONVOY
Yesterday, the Rheinland Battleship Goethe was attacked and destroyed by the Order Terrorist Group.
The Battleship was on a routine supply convoy in Omicron minor when it was attacked.
The leader of the attackers, one known as Arania, is wanted Dead by the rheinland gonvernment.

Arania looked up.
"How could i have led the attack?" He asked "Ive been on this station!"
"There's more" Prometheus said, and the screen shifted to show the Log and the movie side-by-side.
They both started simultaniously, and Arania stared horrified as the log of his dream matched the Wing Commander's lieutenant actual sight.
His protests, hails, pleas. Everythig was the same.
Before he could react again, a new object appeared on the screen:

!Ship Detected!
Type: customised CTE-9000
Pilot: Darkstone
Range: 12km ENE

"Well, there is our myster pilot" Araminta said
"Open a comm channel" Arania said "This is Prometheus base to unidentified pilot darkstone, please respond..."

edit- can we get the censor fixed so that j e r k isnt a filtered word?

Edited by - Arania - The Emperor on 6/26/2004 3:02:24 AM

(OOC: ggrrrr this is what i hate about different timezones almost everyone posts in the middle of my night)


Suddenly as i was getting ready to activate my cruise and head for montezuma I heard Sigma-Tau seven's voice over the comm "Oh no, You're staying here and explaining to me exactly whats going on. now." i heard him say in a slightly angry voice.
"i don't even know whats going on myself i just got here i've been in the independant worlds a few weeks and just jumped through the old magellan gate a few hours ago but to me it looks like either liberty is preparing to defend or to go to war,thats why i'm heading for montezuma to see if i can find out whats going on."
As i started up my cruise engines i remembered something and said.
"your welcome to join me and if you need help i'll escort you to tau-37 so you can get your equipment cause i just hacked into the news service and found out that rheinland lost a battleship to the order somewhere in the border worlds while it was supposedly on a 'supply' run which i doubt because rheinland doesn't use its battleships for ferrying supplies."


Edited by - Dragonborn on 6/26/2004 6:56:48 PM

Planet New Berlin, 1300 hours

The Chancellor flexed his hands and walked into the board room. He was immediatly swarmed on by orderlys giving him notes and diagrams. He took what he needed and got on to the stage. A man covered in optronics came into view. "Sir we're live in five, four, three..." He mouthed the last two numbers and then bright lights came on. The Chancellor steadied himself and began speaking. "Glorius people of the Rheinland nation, I speak to you as your humble leader when I regret to report the destruction of the Battleship Goethe and the new staging post in the Omicron Major system by the Order. The Order, the traitors of the Sirius seek to corrupt and un-do our great successes in this new world. As Liberty builds up in the Independant systems between our two houses and the Kusari nation has all but been destroyed the Order makes a cowardly attack from behind and slaughters two thousand innocent workers of the Rheinland nation. But all is not lost. As this is being broadcast to all of the Sirius anyone who feels they may have been mistaken in fighting Rheinland, this is your opportunity to seek our forgiveness. I as leader of the glorius Rheinland nation am putting a bounty on the Order operative who was present at the battle. Arania must be brought to pay the price for the purity he has destroyed! The bounty is three million credits, plus Rheinland citizenship for you and your family. You will enjoy a life of luxury in the new Rheinland..." he paused. "..Empire" he breathed. He stepped down as the appluase rang througout the theatre and wiped his brow. "Now we will see" he said to himself as he disappeared into a sea of Bodyguards and orderlys.

All over the Sirius, the best bounty hunters, and ex-soliders began getting ready, deserting, stealing, and bribing their way to get ready and to get clearance through the war-torn Sirius sector to the Edge Nebula, the green smudge almost visible in every sector that slowly got bigger with each jump.

Meanwhile James Gruber was a loyal Order member. He wanted to defend his nation, Rheinland in case any of those Nomad bastards came back. But now, they were enemies...Since he was ex-Rheinland and thought to be loyal to the Order cause he was allowed to watch the Rheinland broadcasts to analyse them. It seemed like a great plan, kill Arania then escape to his homeland where he could retire at an early age. Escape wouldnt be too difficult....He looked for Arania and was told he was at another base in the newly discovered Red World. He would have to move quickly as there was rumours of a mass of ships moving towards the Edge nebula. Looking around carefully he contacted the Rheinland military. They were sceptical at first and didnt entirely trust him by the end of the conversation but seemed willing to extend their trust...afterall a double agent who had already infiltrated the Order seemed quite valuble.

Colonel Gunter Waalbeck smiled wolfishly. It was a great plan. Find the Order rat, get the coordinates to this "Red World" and kill that Arania. He checked on his wingmen and continued flying through Omicron Minor. He had been taken out of duty in the Kyushu system, last centre of defence for the dying Kusari dynasty and placed on this hunt for the bold Arania. Soon to be the frozen in space Arania thought Waalbeck to himself. "One contact on scope Herr Colonel" reported a wingman. Waalbeck scanned. Neutral contact....under asteroid....marking, Yellow-2-3..."Ya, this is him, slow to 20 to meet him" The three ships slowed and came to a halt in front of Gruber's ship. "This is Yellow dash two dash three, welcome glor--" Waalbeck cut him off. "Silence! Take us to the jumphole, we have little time" "Uhh...yes well there is some truth in that..." Gruber said uneasily. Waalbeck sighed. "Like what?" "Well my cleareance is ok to go into the system and they won't detect your cloaks if we go fast enough but they will detect you in the Red world if you don't land immediatly." "And they will let us land?" said Waalbeck sceptically. "I've got it all worked out, please just follow" said Gruber pleadingly. Waalbeck's raised eyebrow slid down. "Okay we will follow." Almost immediatly his wingmen's replies came flooding into the private channel. Full of hope, fear, sarcasim and mistrust for this Order fool. "After all, he is a traitor" said one. "We will follow, that is all....observe comm-link silence now!" said Waalbeck, slightly perturbed about his men's fear and mistrust in this valuble source. They entered formation with Gruber and stayed very close. Gruber who was a usual around here talked the sentrys out of cloaking checks, cracking jokes about Rheinlanders and paranoia. The sentrys shrugged off and the base decloaked itself and the jumpgate came into view. Gruber ignored the clearance signals from the base and entered, with four cloaked ships.

Waalbeck was breathing heavily. After they had entered the strange system, some AI had detected them and the alarm was sounded. Gruber tried to dock and was giving cleareance but Waalbeck rammed him out of the way. The others tried to dock as well but had failed. Waalbeck knew two of them and Gruber were already dead, as for the other one he was not sure. This place was really strange. Waalbeck had excelled at history at school and knew this was a Dom'kvash base but it seemed to house a massive computer. He aimed his Daumann Pullitzer pulse burst shotgun at it but then decided not too. His job was to kill Arania and maybe this computer controlled life-support. He walked stealthily over the steel walkways. The whole station was silent apart from the computer who was bleeping and odd colours were appearing from it. Various parts of the station he noticed were covered in red dust....maybe from the system, maybe not. He walked through a doorway and noticed a hologram pad, turned off. Wires were everywhere and computer screens flashed with various news channels. He looked thorough another door and saw some living quators. He stroked his chin thoughtfully and slid the pulse shotun around his back. He looked thorough the quartors at various stuff. There was a distinct smell of smoke in the room and a larger gathering of mysterious red dust. There was also a dream log collector. Seems like Arania's got it pretty good here he thought. "Well too bad it's all going to waste" he said aload. He grabbed a small computer and scanned thorugh it. It was a neural net log. He scanned to the bottom where it finished, wondering how he fought a battle when he was at this base. Waalbeck snorted. "Sorry it's too late to beg for forgivness now" he replied in green font. Satisfied with his little reply he slung his shotgun off his back and held it tightly. He walked out to the empty hologram projector room and noticed a single gold feather on the ground. "What the...." he exclaimed bending down to pick it up. If this was real and belonged to an animal exotic stuff like this could only come from Planet Gaia he thought. Suddenly there was a clanking of boots on the metal plates behind him. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a shadow move along the ground and the click arming of a gun broke the silence. The barrel moved up towards his head and knocked off his helmet. At the same time a knife moved quickly cutting his three holsters and his utility belt. Waalbeck moved quickly, turning around and holding down his assailent's arms with his, and glared into the other's eyes. "We seem to have a stowaway Araminta..." said the man....Suddenly an odd voice started speaking throughout the ship. "Darkstone approaches"


Hasta la victoria siemprè! (Ever onward to victory) - Ernesto Che Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevara



Edited by - redstarpaddy on 6/26/2004 3:52:59 PM

"Darkstone Approaches"
Prometheus' voice rang through the base, signalling the approach of the Eagle floating ominously outside the massive base.
Arania, pinned to the floor by the mysterious Rheinland Assasin, was surprisingly relaxed, and stared past the eyes of his assailant onto his back.
"What are you staring at?" the officer asked
Arania's smile broadened.
"My Dæmon" Arania Replied
"Your what?"
As if in answer, Araminta Materialised on Waalbeck's back, covered in blue fire that thretened to send the Rheinlander up in flames at any moment.
"Now now Ara" Arania said "That no way to treat a guest, but then again, this is hardly appropriate behaviour upon ones host..."
Waalbeck fumed at Arania's arrogance, and applied a slight pressure to his gun's trigger.
"now, are you going to get off me or will i have to set you on fire?" Arania asked "Because, advanced as the Dom'Kavash were, they didnt trust each other, and installed a high-precision EMP generator on board"
Wallbeck Raised an eyebrow
"Basically" Arania continued "Guns wont work on board this base, with the exception of the concealed Graviton Defence cannons, and those are controlled by Prometheus"
"Who also controlls everything else on this base?" Waalbeck guessed
"Exactly" Arania answered

Edited by - Arania - The Emperor on 6/27/2004 3:13:07 PM

The news about The Order attacking a Rheinland capital ship was a shock to my system, and puzzled me at the least. I had to reach Kenji, who was working on Caimbridge, at his old post in the Caimbridge research center. But i had to keep an eye on this stranger.

"I have buisness to attend to on Planet Caimbridge, meet me on Sheffield in a day. i may need another soul to join me on my exhile journey. That is, of course if you want to join me that is..."

"Sheffield it is then i'll be there in few hours after you just gotta make a quick stop at montezuma."
I activated my cruise engines and headed to montezuma hoping i had done the right thing.

Arania, waiting for the Rheinlanders reply, was starting to get annoyed.
"Get off" He said.
Waalbeck pressed the gun harder against arania's skull.
"Fine" Arania said "Ara?"
The dæmon slowly lowered her flaming right wing onto the Rheinlander's back.
He went up in flames before she even had a chance to touch him.
Waalbeck panicked, and flipped out a combat knife, slicing a massive gash down the side of Arania's face and onto his neck.
As if in response, Arania immediatley delivered a devastating blow to Waalbeck's nether regions, followed by a nice uppercut on his chin, knocking him unconcious and immediatley putting aout the burning blaze on his back.
Arania stood up, and felt slghtly dizzy as he felt himself lose the blood out of the wound on his face.
His vision growing steadily blurrier, he hauled Waalbeck into the bedroom opposite his and locked the door.
"Prometheus" Arania muttered, stumbling back to his room "Make sure Waalbeck dosnt get out"
"Sure thing" Prometheus replied
Arania collapsed on his bed, and saw a blurry image of a Phoenix bending over him.
The last thing he saw was Araminta laying her wing on his face. Before everything went black.

Three hours later...

Arania awoke, his vision stil very blurry, but that wasnt the chief of his worries, his beeding had stopped, but feeling his face he could feel a feather-like seal over the cut.
Once his vision had cleared, he looked into the mirror and saw that the cut had been covered with a red substance that, on closer inspection, appeared to be a cross between a scab and some of Araminta's feathers...
Araminta herself flapped over and landed on Arania's shoulder.
Arania walked back to the control deck, smiling at the pounding of Waalbeck upon his 'prison' door.
once he had settled down onto the main console, a massive map flased up onto the screen, blocking out the window behind it.
The movement map had changed since he last looked, the rheniland goverment had pulled back from itsposts in the omicrons and Bretonia.
Every single military presence in Sirius was moving into the Edge nebula, in particular the Omicron Minor and Major systems.
"i took the Liberty of Locking the Hyper Gate" Prometheus said "But i dont think the security will hold out for long"
The map zoomed out to show the discovered network of the Dom'Kavash hyper gates.
"How easy do you think it will be to relocate you to here?" Arania asked, pulling up a system map containing a massive Dom'Kavash base, once that was much larger than the one he was on now.
"Not hard" Prometheus replied "we had to modify this base to include a neuronic data storage core and rewire it to the systems. There, all i have to do is overwrite the existing AI controller, since it is already hardwired to the entire base"
"How soon could it be completed?" Arania asked
"18.3 minutes" Prometheus replied "there is a hypergate to that system barely 10 km from here"
"ok, go" Arania said "and erase all the data on this base. Lock the gate after i go through too"
Prometheus vanished, and lights dimmed as he began transmission.
Arania walked down the corridoor to the docking bay, making note to put a small tracer onto Waalbeck's ships computer power feed.
Climbing into his Anubis, he flew out of the bay towards the gate, transmitting a small message to darkstone about the complications and to meet him at toledo in three days time.
As he approached the gate, it activated, and the beaty of spacetime warped into a cascade around him as he was flung into the void of space.
As the colours settled back to normal, he saw the largest structure he had ever seen. the dom'kavash base was bigger than a sun!
Carefully manuvering his ship into the bay, he scanned the base, and found that 3 quarters of it had been sealed off.
The ship settled down with a thump, and the docking bay doors closed behind him.
Immediatley the bay lights snapped on, revealing a massive hangar, filled with maintenace equipment, drones, and bots. What most interested him, however, was the 4 nomad interceptors in a maintenance bay, and the mysterious fighter at the end, that could only be identified as a dom'kavash fighter.
Checking that Prometheus' data transfer was complete and uneventful, he settled down in his ship's bunk, being too tired to find a bedroom.

I left Omicron Black 9 at the Jump Hole, and went on my way to Manchester. It was an uneventful trip through the dark system, and soon I reached the New London gate. Because of the Liberty 'incident' i decided to take the shortcut through the jump hole east of Kensington. I turned on the stereo i had installed in my ship, selecting some of the classical pieces from 20th century Earth, a rare find in the wreck of the Hispania. I loved some of the effects produced on the instruments without real-time processing and streaming digital technology. The names also made me smile at times, and I wonder how they came up with them, while others just confuse me. Rage Against tthe Machine? i was told that Earth was a quaint Utopia in the 20th century... Element Eighty... probably a group of scientists named this one, naming it after mercury...

Before i could ponder it more, the trade lane to Caimbridge was looming ominously in front of me with the onboard systems reminding me that a waypoint had been reached. I docked with the trade lane and relaxed a little in the seat of my ship. Soothing guitar sounds met litte resistance with my ears, and the driving bass sounds of Hed P.E. moved my feet in a different rythym. After a while, the gem known as Caimbridge came into my view, and filled one side of my ships forward window. I proceeded through the docking ring and made my way to the research center on the other side of the planet where Kenji was stationed. I landed and walked throughthe main entrance, walking up to the main reception. A young woman with crimson hair sat behind the desk with headphones blaring the latest synth-pop on, reading a magazine obviously aimed at the female market. I knocked on the desk to get her attention, but to no avail. I rang the bell, again, with no reply. Somewhat annoyed, I tapped the receptionist on the shoulder. Without taking off the headphones, she replied with a simple 'What?'. Now I wish I could see my own face, because when Kenji walked through the staff only door, he wishes that he could have taken a photograph of my expression, describing it as a blank stare combined with a hidden desire to explode.

"Vi! What the hell are you doing here?" Kenji said to awaken me from my rage filled delusion.
"Kenji, somethings going down, and it's huge. I need to get A.K."
"A.K.? What do you need with him?"
"He's got my acess codes to Daedelus. Basically he's got all the information we collected. That and I kinda miss having him look over the power levels in the Reflex."
"Get a pass from reception and follow me."

Hearing that instruction, i almost lost it.

"Don't you have to sign me in?"
"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me."

Kenji walked over to reception and signed in a pass for me. He handed me the keycard and walked over to the 'staff only' door.

I swiped my card to get in and followed Kenji into the labs. Experiments of all kinds were taking place in all the rooms adjacent to the hallway i was in. After about a 500 metre walk, we arrived at his station; Robotics and AI. Inside about seven scientists and programmers working on various projects. I didn't really care about them, I just wanted my travelling companion. At the rear of the lab was Kenji's station, cluttered with research papers and littered with tools and failed experiments. In the corner of the room, on the side bench sat A.K., Sirius' first sentient robot. I had managed to salvage the little guy from the Rheinland scrapyards when i was first exhiled from Liberty. Since then he had stored all the details of my trip through Sirius and kept me company when Kenji returned to New Tokyo, and when I was living out in Tau-37, A.K. monitored the station where i lived.

"There's the little robotic scamp!"

A.K. remained motionless.

"Kenji... did you shut him down?"
"I had to, his battery supplies were at the end of their life when you brought him here, and I haven't had time to install the new power supply."
"I could probably explain that one..."
"No,the batteries used had a limited amount of recharges, and he ran out, poor little guy. But thanks to the Nomad Research Department i got a new power source."
"You're putting him on Nomad power?"
"No more recharges, no more need for an external supply."
"Thats a plus."

Kenji went over to his bench and produced a device that glowed purple.

"Just a simple task of plugging it in and testing it out..."

Colonel Gunter Waalbeck sat on the small bed filled with anger. He stood up and considered hammering the door a couple more times but decided against it. His chin ached with the punch Arania had delivered. Then it came to him. The EIR, Emergency Information Reporter. It was a little display that reported most things from troop movements right down to little unimportant details like how the minor system tech works in most modern firearms. It also ran on very fine circuitry, stolen kusari technology that enabled it to carry on even through EMP and jamming interference. He hammered in to the map of the Sirius. There seemed to be a lot of heavily armed traffic steadily moving eastward.

There were a few military forces going there but most of the war carried on. The lights seemed to be getting dimmer. Arania had almost certainly left and the computer had somehow disappeared. He budged the door and it opened a tiny bit. Squeezing his fingers in, and then eventually his arm to shove it open big enough for him to get through. He ran through and looked at a map. It showed what appeared to be all Rheinland military forces heading to the Edge Nebula. He smiled. It was indeed fortunate and pleasently surprising that the other houses seemed to think the Rheinlanders had taken away their cloaking technology. He plugged in his EIR and all the cloaked and secret black op Rheinland forces came into view. It showed a dramatically different view. The bulk of the Rheinland fleet was attacking Cambridge and the Kusari forces had been confined to Planet Kyushu where a massive land battle was taking place. There was a large war raging in the Hudson system and a stalemate in the Bering.

The AI had appeared to have transferred to another base so he set about destroying the Graviton defence cannon controls and walked smartly down to his ship and contacted the specialist Rheinland forces. "Black one nine niner come in this is Hawk do you read me?" After a long silence a very staticky reply came through. "Roger Hawk reading you loud and clear"
"Form onto me for pursuit of war criminal Arania" Waalbeck shot and closed the comm-link. No further words were required.

It had taken several hours but they had hacked the lock on the hyper-gate and flown into the system undetected. This was thanks to Katsu Sakai, a Kishiro executive who had been bribed to provide latest implants for all types of electronics and machinary to jam disrupter signals. They uncloaked just in front of the base and Sakai hacked the docking controls to open the docks maunally. This was such an effort and burned the electronics so badly that it could only be used once but Waalbeck managed to squeeze in one with his best fighter Kappelhoff. Sakai and the other wingman flew off immediatly to avoid destruction leaving Waalbeck and Von Kappelhoff to either succeed or die

Kappelhoff checked his gun. "Sir this is some serious jamming, not even Sakai's implants work." Waalbeck eyed the place warily. "Well if we can't neither can he and besides I want to talk to him rather than kill him straight away" "We can take him sir" said Kappelhoff confidently. "No no no" replied Waalbeck instantly.
"He has this bloody phoenix and this mysterious Darkstone."
"Right" replied Kappelhoff uncertainly.
Waalbeck strode up to what appeared to be a control centre. "This is what we are looking for" he said in triumph. He and Kappelhoff started plastering the place is explosive, arming it immediatly so if one was tampered with or removed the rest would expload. As Kappelhoff set more and more explosive, Waalbeck strolled outside and notcied the Eagle and an Anubis silent in the docks. He narrowed his eyes and put on the dark vision optronics. Quickly he walked inside and got the dock controls wired to a handhold controller.

Then he put full lighting on to the area of space where the Eagle and Anubis sat waiting. Seeing nothing immediatly suspicious he sealed the centre up
"Arania? Darkstone? I know you're out there. We have this place wired, " he briefly looking out to Kappelhoff who was still setting explosive and stopped working long enough to nod back at Waalbeck " and we could destroy this place right now...even escape too if we're lucky enough. But since I have a feeling there's more to this than appears and you proclaim yourself innocent I'm gonna let you give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow this wholedamn antique up.
Kappelhoff finished and walked inside to join him. Waalbeck thought for a minute. "And don't bring that damn bird back because I have a few antique weapons of my own that your computer can't disrupt" finished Waalbeck.

Kappelhoff raised his eyebrows. Waalbeck finished and handed him a very old gun that had been hurridly restored. It was a very old automatic machine type gun with a wooden stock. "The Ak-47 I belive"said Waalbeck. Kappelhoff looked at it uncertainly. Waalbeck was about to say something but then he heard a clank outside and a groan. Kappelhoff rushed outside to the stairs where a dark shape was crouched. It began to get up. Kappelhoff aimed the Ak-47. "Just give me a reason" he said evenly. Waalbeck put his hand over the gun. "Wait" was all he said.


Hasta la victoria siemprè! (Ever onward to victory) - Ernesto Che Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevara

OOC: wow, this is getting good, i can almost feel like this is a storyline from FL. And a small warning, this ones kinda heavy, so i'll give it an M15+ rating (dunno what the US equivalent is. lets just say it about Blade Runner heaviness)

IC:
"Just a matter of plugging it in..."

They were Kenji's last words. The Rheinland Military had hit Caimbridge. Hard.
A large beam had shaken loose and impaled him, the Nomad power supply falling to the ground. I paniced and dove to catch it, and did so with style, avoiding another falling cross-member. I grabbed A.K. and ran to the emergency exit. What i was greeted with was Rheinland military destroying all the ships on the landing pad. And there was a phase shift next to mine. In five seconds it was an explosion. The latest Z-Axis light Fighter was reduced to dust and vapour.

All I wanted to do was be a die-hard hero, but i knew better. I ran for the undergound shelter, where Kenji's old Headhunter was kept. Kenji had tweaked since i sold it to him, but it still had some of my personality imbedded in it.

In the basement of the research facility, the majestic ZX-17B Headhunter was in pristine condition, like out of the showroom. Well, almost out of the showroom, there had been some modifications, like the addition of a passengers seat behind the pilot. Hopefully, the ports for A.K. were still functional, because i would need his help to get out of this.

I was about to get in and start this beast up when I heard a faint scream from the other side of the basement. I grabbed the stowed rifle from its compartment and moved in the direction of the sound. What i saw from my dark corner was not what I wanted to see, hear or comprehend. The Rheinland military had obviously sent in their Schwatz Kommando, or Black Ops units to take out civillians and resistors. The problem is the the Schwartz Kommando were sadistic criminals, rapists, serial killers and just plain f***ed up people. This one must have been convicted of rape. He was dragging a young research assistant by the hair to a secluded corner, and was about to "do his thing" (id add more detail, but this is a family site. im not that sick) I would not allow this to happen. not while I have a weapon in my hands.

I took the shot.

Fate may hate having the Traveller stay still, but it gives great pleasure in giving him enormous amounts of luck. The shot passed straight through his head, hitting the centre of his brain, and leaving him slumped over his former victim. I ran over to asses the damage, even though i should have taken off already. The young woman was frozen with fear, and could not move a muscle, so I dragged the body away, put the girl over my shoulders and ran like hell back to Kenji's ship. I put the girl in the rear seat, jumped in the front, plugged A.K. into the I/O port, and hit the throttle as hard as I could. Before i had given Kenji this ship it was pretty fast. It was able to outrun nearly anything. It was made obsolete by faster engines, and it seems that Kenji had kept up. This ship had the same, if not more power than my Reflex. Now that is something. I quickly left the Rheinland invasion forces behind and headed fo the docking ring. Well, where the docking ring was. Pieces of it lay embedded in the main landing pads of Caimbridge. This was going to one hell of an escape. The Mooring fixtures were still in orbit however, so there was one thin ray of hope. Mooring fixtures use a small docking ring to allow travel to the surface. I hit that ring at full speed, losing the side cannons of Kenji's ship. I cringed when it happened, but then i realised they were easily replaceable Heavy Flashpoints.

The Rheinland fleet pursued me all the way to the New London jump hole, when which a group of Mollys kept them busy. I slipped through the jump hole and made my way to Sheffield station and prayed that the stranger whom i met in Liberty was waiting for me there...

Edited by - Viator on 6/28/2004 12:04:53 AM

OOC:
damn your relentless.... i was hoping to wait abit until revealing this bit, but anyway...
@viator: daedalus, is that what i think it is, THE Daedalus?

IC:
Location: Outside the 'Blue Fire' Dom'Kavash base, Rigel Sector
Arania floated outside the base, flying, or rather, trying to fly, the Dom'Kavash fighter that had beein in the hanger only hours before. Thankfully, his extensive knowledge of both the Dom'Kavash and Nomad languages allowed him to read what was being projected to him on the okcpit window.
With difficulty, he aimed at the explosive sharges lining the hangar, hoping that his holographic guise would hold out until he could fire.
The reticle armed and the two wing-wired graviton cannons prepared to fire.
Out of nowhere, a Titan decloaked and shot the Dom'Kavash fighter just as arania pulled the trigger, sending the white bolts straming into the base's shielding system.
Araminta lost her balance on the console and went sprawling to the floor as Prometheus, having been re-transmitted to onboard the fighter, tried to re-correct the path.
Arania spun around to face his assailant.
"Power down" came a female voice over the comm
"Who is this?" Arania asked
"You should know who i am Proteus" The titan pilot replied
Arania flinched and glipped the back of his neck where the scar was.
Aramintas eyes became glassy, blank, as Proteus the Nomad spoke:
"I should have known you would have followed me Hera"
"Yes, you should have known better" Hera replied.
"I suppose you planned the attack on the Rheinland convoy to lure me out?"
"Yes" Hera answered "Osiris was quite eager to try and commune with you in order to obtain your host's name"
"You used my brother" Proteus Gasped in anger "To get at me?"
"He was quite willing after i offered him a high-ranking military host" Hera replied
"You!" Proteus gasped "You, you, HIPPOCRITE!!!! YOU SAID YOU WOULD DIE FOR ME!!! YOU SAID I MEANT THE UNIVERSE TO YOU!!"
"You did" Hera replied calmly "But ever since you stole that poor soul's body you broke my heart"
"I asked" Proteus said "Or rather, he offered. And i didnt have a choice, either. I had to hide, otherwise Osiris would have assasinated me. He was jealous of me ever since i married you, and would do anything to get at you, including kill me. THATS WHY HE HELPED YOU!!"
"Maybe" Hera replied "Maybe not, but that defeats the purpuse of why i am here. To collect the bounty on your head and have my revenge"
Proteus released his control over Arania, who immediatley swerved the ship to avoid the neutron bursts Hera was shooting at them.
It became obvious within 5 seconds that the Dom'Kavash were more advanced that the Corsairs, and Hera's ship floated, wrecked, through the system, ravaged by the ship's graviton bursts.
Engaging the ships jump drive, he headed for Alaska, at least he would be safe there until he could get to sheffield station. Before he had left he unpdated his history of the comm-hack beacons in Liberty and overheard two pilots talking about going there, one 'doubting that rheinland used battleships for supply runs'.
Maybe they could be of help.
Arania and his dæmon hung on as the jump drive hurled them, the ship, and Prometheus millions of light-years into the war-torn sirius sector.

As for Rheinland the war was going well. They had extracted revenge of the GMG and the Kusari Shogunate was in total ruin, Shogun Edo was in Vierlande Prison with common criminals and Emperor Kyu had been executed by a common Rheinland infantryman, a private in fact who had been taken out of service and richly rewarded for this small but apparently great deed. As the Rheinlanders mopped up on Kyushu they deployed Rheinland Federal Police squads to maintain Rheinland control and pacify any Kusari resistance.

Though on the east side of the Sirius the Rheinlanders were engaged in a furious battle with the Order and were not going as well. The Order with extensive knowledge of the Edge Nebula and specially designed sheilds to cut down on radiation damage scanned thorugh the misty clouds and cut off Rheinland supply routes and patrols. Though with the Colditz system churning out millions more troops and ships the Order were fearing they would lose this war by attrition or eventually have to maintain a low key guerilla war to keep the Rheinlanders on their toes in the Edge Nebula.

The Bretonians were putting up a brave defence in the Cambridge system but pulled back to the New London system to shorten supply routes and split up to travel to defence plans in Leeds to guard against the growing threat from Kusari controlled Rheinland.

Liberty after it's bold attack into the Bering and Hudson systems reduced the ferocity of the fighting by sending some of their forces to fortify the Colorado system, also threatened by Kusari controlled Rheinland. Though they had an advantage as Ageira workers disabled the trade lanes and jumpgates in the Kepler and Gallileo systems to hinder Rheinland's uncontrolled expansion.

And if this wasn't enough most criminal organizations were engaging war on Rheinland forces realizing that they could not survive long under a Rheinland police state. The Outcasts had even gone as far as to strike deals with the Bretonian parliament, making Outcast controlled systems a haven for Bretonian refugees and defence forces and were also sending their best pilots to fight for Bretonia including Santiago Llorens, their best pulled out of retirement.

The Rheinland forces had conquered all of Kusari, the Omegas, the Sigmas and at least temporarily a small part of Bretonia through their Blitzkreig. The Rheinland war machine was running out of steam as the Free Forces of the Sirius or FFS as they had come to be known pulled together. Bounty hunters worked alongside notorius Outcast and Corsair criminals while even the cynical Xenos came though they kept to themselves. The Zoners remained neutral having seemingly been ignored by the Rheinlanders. And while many a common criminal flew alongside a Navy hero or patriotic merchant the Rheinlanders were far from defeated. If they even got close to capturing back systems stolen by the Rheinlanders it was going to take a lot of bloodshed.

While technicians and mechanics and pilots of every creed and house worked together to undo the Rheinland war machine the Rheinlanders licked their wounds and dug-in deeply, determined to keep their hard won ground, or space as it was.

----

Waalbeck woke to emptiness. "Ahhh christ my head hurts!" he yellew to noone in particular. Kappelhoff was unconcious beside him. Slowly he got up. The explosives had been set off somehow but this base had held together. Waalbeck shook his head and carried Kappelhoff towards the undamaged Valkrye. He shoved Kappelhoff behind his seat and slowly manoueverd his ship out with the hand held dock control he had rigged up. He realised his real place now was with the fighting in the Sirius. Besides the pursuit of Arania was getting annoying.

On the long trip back he reflected on the past decade. The war, the military build-up....Even back when he was first shown the Colditz system. There was no real point in a complete take-over of the Sirius he thought. Then a very troublesome thought crept into his mind. He was presented with a cross-roads. Should he fight for this new Freedom force? After all you could compare Rheinland now with the old Coalition. Same old evil domination. As he arrived at a Rheinland outpost in the Omega 41 system he looked at the latest updates. Rheinland's expansion had been at least temporarily checked, apart from the Bretonian systems and they had dug in to defend their newly won territory.

He sighed as he realised the thing he had to do. He walked back to his ship, kicked the sleeping Kappelhoff out and flew away, ignoring the calls for clearance. He flew far into the no-mans zone into the patrol path of an Order squad who preceeded to destroy him until he replied. "I've come to work for you"

Edited by - redstarpaddy on 6/28/2004 2:22:46 AM

OOC:
@Arania: are you thinking the DX daedalus?

IC:
New London seemed like it was going to be hell. I had to re-learn the limits of my old ship, I had a now unconcious passenger, and i had to re-establish my link with Daedalus in Tau-37 through A.K.. This was going to be a task without the persistance of the Gaian Starfliers and Startrackers on my back. The Bretonian Police became my best friend now, as they were expert at removing such pests.

I had one last stop on my way to Sheffield. And that was the equipment dealer run by Claude Gilbert. As another Order operative he was down with the latest info on the internals of The Order. I had joined the Kensignton -> New London trade lane about 1/4 of the way from Kensignton to New London. Cruising along at breakneck speed i started to work on A.K., trying to get the Nomad power supply working. Kenji had taken the hard part out, transforming the power outputs into workable levels. The only problem was heat. The coils and resistors in the transformer were overheating to critical levels within seconds, allowing only a partial boot of A.K.'s systems. I was gonna require some pretty strong cooling material. Well it would until I noticed why Kenji was having problems. A lazy PCB maker had accidentally taken too much off and broke a link, ending in a coil overload. A quick bit of eyeball engineering and I had some success, but New London was close, leaving me to quickly put the power supply away and Land on the planet.

Claude was his old self, cracking jokes at minority groups, being a erk-jay as usual.

"Well, if it isn't the Viator himself. Whats cr*ppening, my man?"

Claude's language was far from perfect.

"Not much, just need some info from the sequence. Heard they took out a Rheinland capital ship. You know anything?"

The Sequence had become our code name for The Order, and it seemed to fit quite nicely in the scheme of things.

"The Sequence had nothing to do with it! Deliberatly attacked by Rheinland Schwartz Kommandos in Anubises. Death's Hand MkIIIs and all! The works!"

This was disturbing news, but Claude went on to tell me about how Kusari had fallen, and the Tau systems were under threat. That is what scared me. The rest of the houses were banding together to fight off Rheinland, even the Corsair Mafia, the Dragon Syndicates, the Outcast Pirates, heck, even the Xenos were pitching in. I needed to get to Daedalus. Fast. It had to be the key to all this. I would get there or die trying. I ran back to my ship and took off, ignoring the clearance warnings. I cut off a Xeno Freighter on the way, and engaged the cruise engines to get to Leeds. But there was Omicron Black 9 on Sheffield, and I had no idea what to do about him.

I connected the repaired Nomad power supply to A.K. and his boot up sequence began. The initial reports were good, and he brightened into life. The small AI interpereted my facial pattern. It beeped it recognition.

"A.K., I need you to interface with Daedalus, but I also need to send a message to Sheffield via long range. Can you do that?"

A.K. beeped a positive response, and waited for me to record the message.

"Omicron Black 9, Sorry, but a change of plans, if you want to help me, I'll be in Leeds for about 30 minutes after sending this message. If you want to help the cause of freedom, find me in Leeds. if not, i wish you good luck in your journey."

A.K. processed the message and sent it. After a few seconds it beeped its response to the other request, and registered a prompt on the ships neural net.

"Daedalus Input:>_"
-:-
Vi

OOC: no, I won't reveal exactly what daedalus is yet...