I know its a bit long for a prologue - promise future ones wont be as lengthy unless u want it to be

Freelancer: Imperial Navy

The Battle for New Berlin – Part I

Prologue /

715AS – Approximately 5 years prior to the 80 years war
Approximately 97 years prior to the Nomad incursion of 812AS



In the year 715AS the Rheinland military finally managed to secure full control over the Rheinland Republic’s primary assets, and assumed command of the Rheinland Police as well. The Popular Revolution came to an end and the Bundschu retired to the Rheinland border of Frankfurt, leaving nothing but wreckage all over the New Berlin system. With the revolution finished the Gas Miners Guild found themselves outnumbered by Rheinland warships, sweeping the asteroid fields, pushing them back out of New Berlin and Frankfurt, and back to their home system of Sigma-13. For the first time in a century Rheinland was at peace with itself, and the only remaining thugs were pitiful criminals just earning a living. Of course, the Bundschu still had assets in high places but they were not powerful enough to change anything.
With the children of Rheinland held at bay, their leader captive and the GMG banished from Rheinland territory, only the Red Hessians began to seek control over the Republic by freeing all Rheinlander’s from their corrupt government and reinstating control, honesty and freedom to it.
When the Hessians took control of the Harzfeld field the GMG signed a temporary alliance with the criminals, deciding to fund them with money, technology and new recruits to complete their mission.
Only one faction can be victorious…
The battle rages on…

Lieutenant Ricard Leveer shuffled in the cramped uncomfortable cockpit of his Banshee. He had been stuck out on patrol all day after Patrol Zeta Six claimed to have spotted two GMG trains with moderate escorts making its way deeper into the Harzfeld asteroid field. Rumour and mere speculation had it that there was a jump hole that led straight to the GMG home world of Sigma-13. Of course everyone knew there was jump hole out here somewhere, and when a Freelancer stumbled across it at one point they noticed that it was not phase-aligned. Unfortunately he escaped Rheinland space before he could be questioned of its whereabouts.
Then he died when the Police put a bounty on his head.
Ricard stared out the cockpit’s glass frame and squinted as the sun came into view; it took a while for the automatic tinting on the glass to kick in before he could keep his eyes wide open again. What I would give for a sidewinder fang right about now . He thought to himself as he reached into a side compartment to pull out a small bottle, before reaching in further and then cursing out loud!God damnit! Forgot to pack a glass… oh well . He ignored his thoughts again and took a quick swig and relaxed in the chair.
“Ricard put down that sidewinder fang for once.” One of his wingmen said.
“I cannot help it if I want a drink after a twelve hour flight, and…” he paused for a moment and stared out the left at his wingman, puzzled, “Hang on a minute how the hell did you know what it was?”
He could hear a small laugh over the comm. “Oh come on Ricard we all saw you sneak that bottle into your flight suit before we launched from Berlin.” His second said.
“I bet even the deck officer saw it!” first agreed quickly.
“I hope he didn’t…” Ricard groaned as he began to imagine himself stepping out of his cockpit on the deck, and before climbing down the ladder he would be running back up it and taking off again! Old man Kohler certainly was hard but he did the job right at least! Still, wouldn’t want to get on his bad side…again . “This place is as dead as Texas is, why the hell are we sent out on a patrol mission because some fool thinks he saw a GMG ship?” there was silence from both ends, “I mean it was probably a Republican Train the idiot!”
“Look these routine patrol missions are boring enough as it is, let’s just get it over with.” First moaned back at him, “It is bad enough going on one let alone with you moaning in our ears every five minutes.”
“Waldo, remember what we did to that new kid when he was almost crying because we wouldn’t help him against that Junker fool that kept taking pot-shots at him?” Second smirked, even though he knew no one would see he still found it too amusing to not.
“Back to the good old days…” Waldo smiled as well.
“Right, right, well I am a superior I don’t really care what you did to anyone.” Ricard would hate to admit that he was also grinning in curiosity as to what they did to him, “Besides, we are not against some pushy Junker now, this could turn into full-scale war at the first move that the…” he stopped suddenly as the proximity alarm sounded. He noticed that the two wingmen had stopped laughing as well.
“Here we go, I think we have something…” Waldo sounded excited for once.
“I’ll radio it in,” Ricard grunted as he changed the frequency, “Old folks home this is Patrol Epsilon Four, we have a reading on possible bogey bearing zero-one-four, confirmation on long range requested.”
“Confirmed as an unknown, Epsilon Four, identify target.” Came the response.
The Lieutenant fumbled with the controls and changed frequency again, “Alright then, we have an unknown, so lets go down and take a look.” He said with anticipation. The two wingmen acknowledged and the three Banshee fighters activated their cruise engines, leaving a faint green trail in their wake,
“Well let’s make it quick I’m running low on fuel.” He muttered.
“Wow possible action for once in a blue moon.” Waldo laughed again. Something that really puzzled Ricard at how Waldo could laugh at pretty much anything. Hell even in the middle of the Popular Revolution he wouldn’t stop laughing when one of their ships crashed into another, sending it into one of their Cruiser’s bridge! Ricard stared out as the computer locked onto the coordinates of the unknown vessel and he changed course to intercept. He checked from port to starboard to make sure both his wingmen were still in standard formation. “Let’s add some more fun…?” Waldo asked curiously, wondering if the other two pilots knew what he meant,
“Why not…” Second agreed,
“Alright then, Inspection race, last one to get to twenty meters from his hull buys the beer tonight.”
“Twenty meters is pretty close wouldn’t you say? Not that I am protesting…” Waldo started laughing… again. Ricard stroked his short beard as he tried to make out what the ship was. It was another cargo-train by the looks of it, but long range analysis indicated an abnormal engine signature and there were no hull markings of any kind. He looked up quickly from the computer and pushed hard on the stick as he narrowly avoided hitting an asteroid. He let out a deep breath as he passed by it. That was too close!
“For your information I am currently two klicks from the unknown.”
“I am at one and a half…”
“I am on the bridge.”
“You what?” Ricard asked as he looked above the cargo-train at where second had clamped himself to what would be the armoured hull above the bridge of the ship. “Alright enough hot dogging around; this is serious, switching to all frequencies…”
“Just making sure we aren’t exceeding the speed limit.” Second chuckled.
“Unknown transport this is Rheinland patrol Zeta Four you will stop your engines and identify yourself, you have thirty seconds to comply.” Ricard said calmly as he powered his engines down slightly to maintain a loose formation with the transport. He noticed as Waldo did the same. Before long ten seconds had passed and he started to inspect the ship for himself. There were signs of damage on the hull from what seemed to be blast points. She’s obviously seen a lot of battle… He went further behind and scanned her engines. A small alarm alerted him that one of the engines was leaking radiation. He checked his chronometer and noticed it had just gone thirty seconds.
“Alright boys, lets get this idiots attention.” Ricard said as he activated his weapon targeting systems.
“Roger.” Both wingmen said in unison as they followed suit.
“Target his engines… err… last remaining engine.” He said wearily as the green blasts streaked towards the Trains aft section. The blasts struck the sides of the engine compartment as the radiation that was leaking became intense enough to be seen with the naked eye. “Alright that’s enough, lets see if we can get a –
“… Fixed? Yes! You fools cease fire immediately!” suddenly screamed into the three pilots ears as the unknown ship finally made contact. Ricard felt like swearing at the freighter as a loud ringing noise began to fill his ears.
“Unknown vessel identify yourself… quietly please.” The Lieutenant demanded.
“This is IC transport Siphon Two on a trade mission to New Berlin from the Omega-7 system! We are carrying luxury goods to planet New Berlin! Now would you let us go already?” he paused for less than two seconds before “They are right behind us!”
Ricard groaned loudly over the comm. Great, not only have I fired on a friendly vessel it belongs to a company that will now sue me of everything I have! “I find your story hard to believe though, Siphon Two, your trade route does not go through here! Who is after you?”
“We are! Now back off Rheinlander’s, this is personal!” another unknown said.
“Lieutenant, four Hessians coming in from behind, five klicks and closing rapidly!” Waldo said quickly.
“They are armed and targeting both us and the transport.” Second said calmly.
“You idiots! I have no hope of escape now!” the transport yelled!
“Hessian leader, this is restricted territory, turn around now.” Ricard said as he did a quick 180 turn to face the incoming aggressors, “I repeat turn around now, this is your final warning!” He stared blankly ahead as the fighters came straight towards them. He checked the scanners, 2km; time seemed to slow as he wondered why they were so desperate to stop that shipment. Luxury Goods were hardly contraband even for the Red Hessians… unless it was related to the GMG. They had wanted to stop all IC transports going to New Berlin since they had arrived! Even now they send pirates to do their dirty work…
But if the Hessians are working for them…
He returned to reality quickly just in time to avoid a volley of fire from the lead Hessian as he passed over head. “Brake hard right; pick your targets and go, shoot to kill.” Lieutenant Ricard said as he came up behind his attacker. He pressed down on the trigger as the green shots fired quickly past the Hessian thug. He checked his scanner quickly and noticed another one was coming up behind him. Quickly looking up again at his attacker he turned to port quickly as the Hessian went the opposite way. Without fault he turned again back towards the pirate, the engines groaned as he pushed them to the max, the Green trails brightening up space. He fired again as the Hessian came straight towards him. He pulled up and simultaneously pressed down on a different trigger, “Mess with the best, die like the rest!” he said as the missile launcher dropped a Catapult right into the cockpit of the Stiletto class Border World Fighter, turning the remarkable fighter into nothing more than a burning wreck.
“Ricard you’ve got one on your six!” Waldo warned him as he saw his wingman fly overhead,
“Oh so you noticed!” He said, pulling on the controls as his ship swerved from side to side. He cursed under his breath as two shots ripped into his port wing. Son of a… he pulled up to give him time to make sure the wing was still there! It was holding on by a thread!
“God damnit someone get down here, get this guy off me!” second said.
“Waldo!” Ricard yelled, ordering him without saying what to do.
“I am on it!” He yelled back as the Hessian came into view, “See how you like it when someone shoots at you…” he hissed as he got right up behind the other ship, the nose of the Rheinland Banshee was almost touching the Stiletto’s hull as the he stared at the Hessian pilot, “Smile!” he grinned. The Hessian pulled up suddenly and collided with the Rheinlander! He swore loudly as he wrestled with the controls. He pulled back on them as the ship swung out of control, the engines slowly decreasing as they tried to restart.
“Warning, depressurization in twenty seconds.” The computer warned in a calm tone of voice, not even caring for the human occupant.
“Mayday! I’m hit, got a failure in my oxygen supply… Lieutenant!” he whispered in a course voice as he struggled to breathe the quickly diminishing amount of oxygen.
“Eject, Waldo!”
The younger pilot grasped for the ejector controls…
Failed…
The ship decompressed as the pressure imploded the Rheinland ship.
“Waldo! No! God damn you!” He slammed on the controls for the engines as he stopped and turned around, face to face with the Hessian following him. He pounded on the trigger as both ships fired at each other. The Hessian pulled away as the Stealthblade shots ripped through the hull, almost tearing the other ship apart. Ricard watched as the coward initiated his cruise engines, closely followed by the other one that had crippled Waldo’s ship.
“Report!” He muttered.
“The other Hessian is dead.” The wingman replied… “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing could be done. Escort this transport back to New Berlin and inform command…” he said, as he powered up the cruise engines and headed in the opposite direction.
“Where are you going?” The other pilot questioned in shock!
“I owe that Hessian a missile.” Before the other pilot could react the superior had gone out of scanner and communication range. He gave a quick salute from the cockpit of his fighter before entering standard formation with his transport and followed his orders. He passed by the wreckage of his friends ship.
“The Hessians will pay soon enough Waldo.” He muttered.
The transport continued towards New Berlin in its tow with the Rheinlander.

Edited by - CougarUK on 7/29/2004 12:21:49 PM

Edited by - CougarUK on 7/29/2004 12:27:43 PM

I havnt read this yet, but I did notice some very bad language, so for the sake of all of us, please dont use any more GSs <- you know what that stands for. I havnt read this but i relly want to, so plz dont take a chance of getting this fourm locked

Sorry for that, didnt realise
Yes I read the rules I cant remember seeing one about swearing, must be going blind and senile anyway I think I changed all of them, I'll have a quick read through it now, sorry for the inconvinience!!

Good story, keep it up.

"Impossibility is a self imposed limit."

Great Story

I know I shall meet my fate, somewhere in the stars above, those I fight I do not hate, those I guard I do not Love

Chapter 1 /

“All the news that’s good for you, this is the colony news service!”
“Earlier today, a Rheinland patrol was attacked and almost completely wiped out when it encountered a strange cargo-vessel that was carrying supplies to planet New Berlin. According to sources inside the Rheinland military, only one of the pilots made it back to the police base with the cargo ship, whilst one of our unfortunate pilots was killed in the terrible attack by the Red Hessians. However the last pilot, Wing Commander – Lieutenant Ricard Leveer is wanted for questioning by the Rheinland Military, anyone who sees this pilot should report it immediately and if possible take him into custody alive. Catch the full story later tonight!”

“How the hell did the press get this story so damn quickly, gentlemen?”

“They are very fast at it, sir.” One of the five officers around the table said as he switched off the monitor with a remote.

The only pilot from that mission to survive shuffled in the seat as he tried to keep his face blank. Only two hours ago he had been fighting for his survival when he saw one of his best friends die in front of him.

“I don’t care if they are fast; the bounty on his head isn’t even open yet!” The senior officer sat back and the Lieutenant managed to catch his name and rank on his uniform, Admiral Schultzky. “As for you, the first thing you should have done when you picked up Hessians in the area is call it in to base, not mess about playing the hero!”

“With all due respect sir, four Hessians were all over us. I had one man down and my CO was busy trying to shake two of them himself, I didn’t have the time.”

“And so you had one of them…?” Commander Schaefer questioned, reading the pilots statement from a datapad,

“Yes.”

“In your sights?”

“I accelerated, came in from above and as he pulled up I fired a missile, the impact at that speed shattered his ship.” The pilot acknowledged. “At this point the Lieutenant had only just taken the first Hessian out when one of them came up behind me. I radioed for assistance when Waldo collided with him.”

“Collided with him?” The Commander asked astounded, “What the hell was he doing? Talking to the criminals?”

“What is this, an interrogation?”

“Not really, we still haven’t got your name its not on record because you 'claim' to have been recently transferred.” Schultzky replied.

“We just need to know what happened out there. If the Hessians or the GMG are in that area we suspect that the Jump Hole is still inoperable and that the Hessians and the GMG are trying to fool us into sending ships down there." Everyone was silent in the room as if there was nothing to be said anymore.

He knew differently. Everyone had something to say.

“I don’t think it’s about the GMG anymore sir," he admitted.

“What do you mean?” the Commander continued to query.

One of the men sat near to the pilot straightened his uniform, cleared his throat and stood up, moving to a nearby monitor. He turned around to make sure all eyes were focused on him before starting. He pressed a switch next to the blank screen and it came alive, displaying the New Berlin star map. Parts of the grid were shaded red.

“What you are seeing is the current most up to date map of New Berlin. The red shaded grids are where we have intercepted or been interdicted by Red Hessians. The Green areas are where we have been seeing the GMG.” He stopped for a moment and shot a glance at Commander Schaefer, “Or claims to have.

“As you can see all the attention is focused around the Harzfeld asteroid field, and only seven percent of the occurrences have been GMG related, whilst ninety-three percent is related to the on-going issue with the Red Hessians. Now every time we find them, they are at this key point really.” The man pressed another button on the touch-screen and the image zoomed in to display a triangle with a red dot in the centre, “These three points of the triangle represent three key areas where we have encountered heavy Hessian resisstance."

The Admiral spoke up again, “One of us is going to ask, what the red dot is?”

“We are not entirely sure…” he replied honestly.

“But…” the Admiral continued his ‘interrogation’.

“We think it could be the location of the jump-hole to the Sigma-13 system. Which is why I am requesting permission to take a cruiser into this point here to investigate?” The officer said.

“A cruiser is a pretty heavy ship for Red Hessians, Lieutenant…?”

“Lieutenant Commander Jens Haas, Military Intelligence, Admiral.”

“I do not think we can spare a Rheinland Cruiser at this point just so we can go on a hunch you have that the jump-hole which we seek could be found there. It is a pretty big risk.”

The tired pilot could not concentrate for a moment as he started to think where his Wing Commander could have gone. It was not long before he admitted to himself that the Lieutenant had obviously been killed otherwise he would have returned to the base… wouldn’t he? If not… why? The Admiral had gone silent for a moment and he looked up to meet his eyes. They were all staring at him.

“Lieutenant?” The Commander asked steadily.

“Sorry I must have missed that bit.” He admitted embarrassingly.

The Admiral sighed and sat back in his chair. “Need I say more, gentlemen?” He asked and looked around the room at the five of them. He looked as well; all of them looked down as if they were all hanging their heads in shame. The room went quiet for at least ten minutes! Time to break the silence... ,

“Sir…” he began.

“Yes?” The Admiral replied instantly as if expecting him to say something,

“Let the Lieutenant Commander take the cruiser into the Harzfeld, I will fly with him. If we find the jump-hole we will radio in the coordinates. Time is of the essence.” He didn’t know why he had just volunteered to go in, but he felt like flying anywhere was better… and safer than staying in this room any longer with an Admiral that looked like he was going to explode and demote everyone there.

“If we do not act now we may lose any advantage we have, Admiral.” The Lieutenant Commander said as if backing him up.

The large man sighed and leaned forward, clasping his hands together on the table. He looked back up at the live feed for the navigational map of the New Berlin system and watched as another part of the map shaded in red. The clock is ticking, Admiral. No one had to tell him that bit, he could tell for himself, and as he looked round the room yet again he could tell everyone knew that. Finally he spoke some words of relief for the officers,

“I will confer with the other Admirals. You will have an answer in two days.”

“Thank you, sir.” The Lieutenant Commander gave a quick salute.

“In the meantime I suggest you begin to pick a flight crew, tell Colonel Linda Lux that I sent you. She will give you the current manifest. And you, cowboy,” he said, waving a finger at the voluntary officer, “If you hear from your AWOL flight leader you will report it immediately to Commander Schaefer here, understood?”

“Yes sir.” Both men said in unison.

“Dismissed.” He muttered quietly and the officers began to make their way out of the room. The Admiral watched as they hurried out like the room was about to decompress. He smiled, remembering the days when he himself couldn’t wait to get out of a briefing with an Admiral! “Lieutenant, what is your name, for the record?”

“Herr Von Claussen.”

Ah Herr Von Clauson has arrived,
Great Story by the way

I know I shall meet my fate, somewhere in the stars above, those I fight I do not hate, those I guard I do not Love



Edited by - Valkyrie Ace on 7/30/2004 5:45:52 AM