Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:11 pm by DCD359
Chapter Two: An Unfriendly Face
My ship’s computer started to give out readings of known systems so I knew I was getting close to home. What a trip I had. Then I saw on my neural net, the Alaska system. The ship was badly beaten but luckily, it had enough in it to exit the wormhole. Back in Alaska, I looked around. What? Where am I? This is not Alaska. All these things passed through my head in that one second. In the distance, I saw what looked to be a ship. Therefore, I started my engines and crept slowly toward the mysterious object.
As I was approaching the ship was growing bigger and bigger in my sights. When I was twenty thousand kilometers away, I stared passing strange ships all of which, once I passed them, started following me. The ships looked like they had been grown out of some strange plant. Then I was stunned into silence when my ship started moving on its own and not responding to my control. My ship was heading directly into the unknown vessel. I desperately tried to dodge and strafe but it was no use. My ship was not responding at all. Then the ship ahead of me suddenly opened up and I was pulled right inside of it. NO! I was screaming at the top of my lungs but it was no use, nothing was going to save me now. I would just have to sit and see where I was taken. Then it all became black.
I woke up with a start in an odd-looking room. This too looked like it had been grown. I could see shadows of people lurking around me but was too hazed to see properly. I asked them where I was and they replied by whispering to themselves. I tried to get up but was securely fastened to a seat in the room. So once again, I demanded to them where I was and to set me free. This time I got an answer. A swift electric shock through the chair silenced me. Then a voice that seemed to come from all the people present said: “You will know your place soon.” As I tried to figure out what that meant, about five of the figures around the room stepped forward. Their skin was an odd mix of what looked like rubber and tree bark. However, their teeth were sharper than a lumberjack’s axe so I decided to keep my silence. As they stepped toward me, I saw that one of them had something in his hands. It was what looked to be a small chip with prongs in the back…Once again, I was confused. Nevertheless, they made their meaning clear by shoving my head forward and sticking the chip on my neck right into my spinal cord. Severe bouts of pain shot up my body and I passed out.
When I came to, I was in a small dark room that dripped with water and smelled foul. I then realized I was severely hungry. But before I could look around for something edible the floor opened up and I fell directly into an enormous room full of…was I seeing correctly…other humans. At once, I tried to walk around and talk to people to get some information but every time I moved, a sharp pain hit me in the back of the neck. I looked down and saw a tiny sapling growing near me. A large treeman (I assumed it was a guard) threw me onto the ground and said in a gruff manner, “Feed Tree! Make Tree Grow. If Tree Grow, You Live. If It Die, YOU DIE!” Well that was enough for me; I set at once to taking care of my tree. Looking around I saw others doing the same. In the far corner however I saw one small child trying to pour water upon his tree but in the process knocked the pitcher the water was in over. At once guards came up to the child and dragged him away. There was no sound from anyone. In fact, there was no sound in this room at all. It was like there was a perpetual mute button on the entire facility. After six hours of tending to my tree, guards came in and marched us out of the room. We passed more humans that were on the way into the room…so we work in shifts, I thought to myself. The guards led us to a room even larger than the tree room and left us. It was as if someone had just turned on the volume. Suddenly everyone started shouting and yelling. I went to the nearest person I could find and said, “What is this place, Where are we?” They replied by giving me a suspicious look and saying, “where have you been? This place is a nomad hive outpost.” They then walked away, seemingly to get some food. Nomads? This was all too much. We beat them back. How did this happen? My mind was blazing with these questions. However, I was interrupted, at that moment guards came in and dragged me out of the room. They took me to a smaller room that was well lit and had four chairs in its center. The guards placed me in a chair opposite the others and soon a group of professional looking tree-nomad-people came in. All I heard was “We have some questions for you.” Then the pain began.
Chapter Three: Questions Unanswered
Through my screams, I could hear a single question being asked to me. “WHERE IS YOUR BASE?” I cried out that I had no idea what they were talking about but that just made the pain worse. After and hour or so of the excruciating treatment I must have passed out.
When I came to, I was in the larger room again with the other humans. I looked around frantically for someone who looked trustworthy or at least intelligent enough to talk. Then my eyes fell upon a strange looking man. This man, although looking similar to his fellow captives, had strange eyes that darted around quickly, as if looking for something. As I approached him, I was quickly forced the opposite way by a large mob of humans heading for the food table. Someone grunted to me, “It our turn to eat, hurry up.” Therefore, I followed this group to the food station where I received a bowl full of green slimy looking stuff that radiated a smell so horrendous I almost passed out again. The food tasted as bad as it smelt. Just then, I realized I had lost the man, so I frantically looked around but before I could spot him, I was herded with my group out of the room by guards.
They led us to another room but it was slightly smaller than any of the other rooms we had seen, and it was full of scrap parts and odd bits of equipment. We were told by the guards to go through this room and throw away all junk parts and put any usable parts onto a conveyor belt that led out of the room. So I started walking, slowly first to get every piece of junk I saw out of the way, but then I looked around and saw that everyone else seemed to have moved farther to the back away from the guards. Therefore, I too walked on and soon saw that everyone had congregated behind a pile of junk. They saw me peek around the heap and quickly motioned for me to join them. I walked into their circle and started to listen to them. They were finishing off plans to revolt against the guards and make a dash for escape in the docking bay that was supposedly nearby. Not knowing what I was supposed to do I just sat there and watched. Just when they were about to initiate their plan a guard came around the side of the heap and yelled, “What are you doing here?!” Now everything happened so fast it was hard to tell what happened but from my view I saw a few of them rush the guard, push him onto a sharp piece of metal and steal his weapons. Then all of them ran around the side of the heap and rushed the other three guards in the room. About five of the escapees were mowed down on their way to the guards but soon the guards were dead and the escapees were arming themselves to the teeth and making final plan adjustments. They called over to me, so I ran to meet them. They shoved me a plasma rifle and said, “Here, follow us and we’ll get you outa here. We got ten other groups initiating plans similar to this in other rooms and now were just waiting for the signal to go.” Well, I thought to myself that sounds like a nice proposal. All of a sudden, a deafening wail shook the ship. “That’s the signal lets go.” We blew open the door and ran out. To my surprise, I saw hundreds of humans running through the corridor, the man with the strange eyes in the lead. Therefore, I started running with them. Soon we reached a large barricade where nomads were trying to block our escape. The leader of our group shouted to us, “Take positions and take those guys down!” I charged up my rifle and soon dispatched a nomad from atop the barricade. Now we were taking our own losses but soon had taken all the nomads on the barricade out of action. We rushed on the dock and were surprised to find it clear of all nomads. “TO THE SHIPS! EVERYONE GRAB A SHIP AND GET OUTA HERE!” I heard this yelled many times. Everything from huge transports to tiny fighters was taking off around me. I saw an interesting looking fighter to my right and hopped right in. The controls were basic enough for me to understand but I needed a rear gunner to operate the turret. I looked around for someone and started shouting out but everyone else seemed intent on getting to his or her own destinations. Then to my surprise, the strange-eyed man hopped into the rear seat and shouted, “Get this thing outa here!”
We had made it, we were out of the bay and we started forming up the ships then we saw why the docking bay had been empty. A nomad fleet was between our escape route and us. The man behind me yelled out, “NO! We have come too far to lose now! Hey guy, take this thing and engage those fighters.”
“YES, SIR!”
Chapter Four: Homeward Bound
I set my engines to full speed and moved quickly to intercept a wing of nomad fighters heading for a large transport ship. The man with strange eyes turned his seat around and powered up the turrets. “GET READY FOR A SHOCK, LADDY!” He yelled at me. We were now within 5 Kilometers of the nomad fighters, so I powered up my guns and sent out a wave of pure energy. It was beautiful, the ship I had hit slowed to a stop and then combusted into itself. “FIGHTERS ON OUR SIX!” I heard from behind me. Therefore, I threw the ship back into gear, executed a swift barrel roll, and managed to pull my ship right behind another fighter and so I let loose another volley. This time I missed the main hull but hit the fighter’s wing. It spiraled out of control and I turned my ship again to meet another wing of fighters coming in.
Then I noticed another group of nomads coming in from all directions. They had us penned in, the man behind me said, “GET US OUTA HERE.”
“YES, SIR!”
So I started fiddling with the controls on the ship and found a button that said “In case of Emergencies” on it. So knowing I had no other choice I pressed it. As soon as my finger retracted from the button a blue, sphere like shell shot out around the ship. The next second we were spinning, spinning so fast I could not see a thing. Then it all went black.
When I came to, I was in a bed. I sat up and looked around. “Hey, this is my apartment,” I thought to myself. “Was that just a dream?” I got up and walked to the window. When I opened the blinds, I saw a world perfectly normal. “Whew, that was a really odd dream…but wait, what’s this?” I feel behind my neck and something is protruding from it. It was the chip….
PART TWO
Chapter Five: Not Yet Free
I walked out of the room and looked around…wait…this is not my apartment. I was standing in a large corridor full of heaps of machinery and metal. I walked down the corridor looking at the various rooms, each had a different size and had names on them like “Warning: Hazardous gasses inside,” and “Enter at own Risk.”
“What is this place,” I was wondering, when I finally came out of the corridor into a large room that closely resembled a docking bay. All variety of ships was in their respective hangers undergoing massive repairs. Confused, I kept walking, past ship after ship until I found the one that I had flown. It had a tag on it labeled, “Homely/West.” “Hmmm,” I thought to myself “that must be the name of the strange-eyed man.” I could have sworn I heard of that name before. However, before I could place it, West came up to me and said, “Hello there laddie, my name is Nicholas West. We got lucky back there, nice flying.”
“Thanks, Mr. West. Where are we?”
Young chuckles, “Call me Nick my boy,” he said with a hearty smile. “And may I be the first to welcome you to the “Reliance”. It’s a proud ship with the noble task of stopping the nomads from breaching our final defense.”
“Final Defense? Nomads? What, all the nomads were beaten off only a few years ago.”
“I believe we have some things to catch up on my friend. Come with me to my office, I will explain everything there.”
Therefore, I followed him up a stairwell, and into another corridor of a smaller height that seemed to house all the important officers of the ship. Finally, he led me into a room that was nicely furnished with an assortment of chairs and desks.
“Sit down anywhere you like. I believe you have forgotten much of your past and I hope I can help you remember some. I will start in the beginning.”
“After you went missing, I sent out a search party to look for your ship. We feared that you had been taken hostage by Corsairs while you were covering our retreat to Alaska.”
I did still not comprehend what he was saying so I asked him, “Wait, what you mean? How did you know I had gone missing? And why was I covering your retreat, I was traveling with business partners.”
He replied, “Well yes I suppose you could think of us as business partners. We had hired you to cover a developing story for us. We had some major merger issues to work out with Hartmoore Inc. Do you still not remember? You were working for the SNS then; they did not like seeing their best field reporter go missing by the way. You almost caused a war between the Corsairs and the UMU, which the SNS had hired to defend their interests. Anyway, we had made a good run but when we reached Bretonia Space, we began to get threats from the Corsairs. We had managed to evade them so far but they were gaining rapidly. You volunteered to cover us as we went through the jumphole, but when we exited the jumphole, you were nowhere in sight. We turned on our active radars but to no avail. We would have continued our search but a squad of Corsairs was still trailing us so we had to make our escape.”
It all became clear then. I remembered my life in the SNS, my many dangerous attempts to always get the story, and my friend Nicholas West, founder of Shinra Corporation the biggest mining and trading conglomerate in all of Sirius. However, one thing was still troubling me, “But how did the nomads get here in the first place? I thought they were all destroyed.”
“Ah yes, you wouldn’t remember that would you? Well we can thank you for that, though you did not consciously do it of course. It seems that when you went through that other anomaly you opened a new jumphole, which the nomads used to reinvade our system. They came in fast and hard, very few people got out. However, due to my connections up in the government I managed to evacuate all of Shinra and Hartmoore’s employees from Alaska in time. We went into hiding at our base in Sigma 17 but soon the nomads caught up to us. They overran our defenses easily, took us all to their main hive in Alaska for interrogation and forced labor. Luckily, I managed to keep contact with a group of Shinra’s Security force outside of the hive open so we could keep the defense up.” He added as a side note, “You were lucky to come in when you did, who knows what would have happened if you missed the escape.”
Well now it all made sense, too bad I had no idea what the status of our little war was. Just as I was about to ask him, though, he said, “You’ve been assigned to the Specter Wing, they are based out of docking bay four. They are good pilots, you should be in capable hands, report to their leader, Marcos Riberia as soon as you like, no rush.” And with that, he showed me the door and I began walking through more corridors.
Chapter Six: New Friends, Same Enemies
I wandered along the corridor until I found the docking bay again. I looked up and a sign said this was docking bay two, “Hmmm, I wonder where four is,” I thought to myself. All of a sudden, a hand came down on my shoulder. I turned and saw the smiling face of a large man who said, “Harr, harr, I see you met the boss. He is a good fellow but gets a little uptight about his bars you know. Oh right let me introduce myself, I am Marcos Riberia, leader of the Specter Wing. Follow me, Ill show you to our bay.” He led me through more corridors, down two flights of stairs and through two more docking bays before we finally got to our destination. “This is our bay; sleeping quarters are up this stairwell and to the right. Oh that reminds me, SPECTER WING FORM UP!” He yelled, shortly three stout looking men came running and formed a line in front of him. “This here is Woods,” pointing to one of the men, “You’ll not find a better pilot in all of Sirius.” He started moving down the line of men, “And this is Tinkerman, if you need repairs or upgrades he’s your man. Finally this here is Hearts, if you ever need some help in space call him and he will be your man. Boys, this here is Tom Homely, a new recruit, so show him around and don’t let them nomads get him.”
I passed up and down the line shaking each man’s hand in turn, when I got to Marcos I said, “So, Marcos where’s my ship?” A few of the men chuckled, Marcos looked sheepishly at me, “Hehe, just call me The Pope, mate, never liked me name too much. Oh and your ship is being transferred here now, it looked like a nice one, don’t ding it up too much.”
“Hehe, yeah hope not,” I replied. I started looking around and saw many other pilots working on their ships, and then a blaring sound came shooting out of a loudspeaker a few feet away. Just like a switch was turned on pilots starting darting to their ships and powering up engines. “Hey, Pope,” I yelled, “What do I do? My ships not here yet.”
A voice behind me answered, “Hey laddie, jump up here and man the turret.” I turned and saw Woods pointing to the seat behind him while powering up his ship.
“Sure Woods,” I replied. I jumped up the ladder and settled myself into the rear-facing seat behind Woods. The turret was top of the line, which would make my job much easier. Then a voice over the radio said, “Hey Woods, ready to earn your empire?”
“You bet Ace,” Woods replied as he shot his plane out of the open bay doors. “This is Specter One to Specter Leader, what’s the plan Pope?”
A voice crackled over the intercom, “It seems the nomads have broken through the minefield, we are to head them off in Tau 37. We have to take lead, it seems ace is worried about losing his new torp launcher.”
“Roger Specter Leader, Specter takes the lead and makes sure Dragon Talon Babies don’t get hurt.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Ok boys maintain radio silence till we reach Freeport 10; I sure hope they evacuated that place.”
A motley assortment of “rogers” came over the line then nothing but silence. Woods, after setting the ship on autopilot, said, “Hey Tom, we’re passing through Omicron Alpha now. It seems the Outcasts hate the nomads as much as we do. They allow us to maintain our fleet here and free passage through there space. In fact, we might just see some of their pilots in this fight. They are nasty buggers but some of the best flyers out there.”
We were approaching the Tau 37 jumphole when two Outcast pilots pulled up alongside our ship. “This is Genesis Leader to Specter One, what is your destination, over.”
“Genesis Leader this is Specter One, we are heading off some nomads in the Tau 37 system.”
“Roger Specter One, I think I’ll be escorting you to and from those nomads. It took em long enough to break through those mines, I used to pass through em every day.”
“Well Rev, you know most people don’t have your amount of skill.”
Was I hearing correctly? Was this the infamous Outcast Reverend wanted in every colony? Woods, seeing the expression on my face said, “Yep that’s him. It seems that Pope over there knew him from a while back, a business deal I guess. That connection got us to be able to use Outcast space in the first place.”
“Hey Woods, what happened to radio silence?” A voice called over the radio.
“Oh right sorry Pope, will not do it again.”
We were rapidly approaching the Tau 37 jumphole, when finally Woods said, “Ok Tom we going through, hold on to your hat.”
Chapter Seven: An Endless Cycle
When we exited the jumphole, we quickly entered formation with the rest of Specter Wing and zoomed off for Freeport Ten. Once we got within viewing distance of the Freeport, we saw it had massive damage but had fighter wings swarming around it like flies, fighting the nomads off.
“Specter Wing, this is Specter Leader, it seems that they have yet to evacuate the base. Hold off the nomads till we can get those transports clear.”
Another motley assortment of “rogers” came over the line. Just then, Woods pushed the throttle forward and we zoomed off. “GET THAT TURRET POWERED UP!” he screamed over the roar of the engine. I depressed the lever that held the turret in a stationary position and began working with the pedals to get used to the turn rate. “NOMADS, 3 O’clock,” Woods yelled. I turned the turret ninety degrees and sent three pulverizing volleys into the nearest nomad ship, its hull went inward slightly then it exploded in a brilliant flash of light. “WOOHOO! Nice shot laddie.” I started turning the turret again, searching the sky for more unlucky foes.
Suddenly, I saw another group of nomads coming in, “NOMADS ON OUR SIX,” I yelled, and woods gave the ship a quick about face and started pelting the incoming craft with laser fire. “Uh oh laddie we got gunboats in that lot,” Woods said quickly, “Call over to Ace, tell him we need his torps.” “Roger,” I replied quickly, inputting my request and hitting send on the interface. I then turned back to the turret and saw two nomad fighters streak past so I turned to follow them and shot off a few quick bursts. Seeing one explode and another start to turn crazily I turned my attention to the massive nomad gunboat looming up ahead of me. “WOODS, HEY WOODS!” I called out, “You might wanna turn this thing.” “Steering’s busted, hold on,” was the answer I received. “We aint gonna make it,” I thought to myself. Then, Ace came out of nowhere with his guns blazing. He loosed two torpedoes, each striking the gunboat with tremendous force. The gunboat exploded seconds later with a force so great it blasted our ship sideways. “Ok fixed it mate, lets get back in there,” I could hear Woods voice say. The ship lurched forward and I realigned my turret to search for more nomads. Seeing a squad heading for one of the retreating transports, I blasted out a burst but they were out of the guns range. “WOODS, we got nomads on a transport, 5 o’clock,” I yelled out to him. “Roger,” I heard over the boom of a missile that barely missed.
The ship turned swiftly and I finally got a look at the destroyed gunboat. Its turrets had been blown out of their holders and were floating in space while an unknown gas was leaking out of the severed hull. It was beautiful; the oppressive nomads got a taste of their own medicine. I would have stared at that all day until Woods ****ed me back into reality on the radio.
“Watch out there Tom, we got bandits at 3 o’clock.”
“Roger.” I pivoted my turret ninety degrees and opened fire. The nomads were falling left and right. Finally, the transport managed to get free and the nomads fell back to the ice cloud south of Freeport ten. A voice on the radio announced, “Specter Wing report.”
“Specter leader this is Specter two, I have got some hull damage and my shields weak but I’m ok. I’ve also got Specter 3 in my hold.”
“Is Hearts ok?”
“Yes Specter Leader, he’s unconscious at the moment but he should be ok once we get back to base.”
“Roger, good to hear Specter two, Specter one what’s your status?”
“Specter leader this is Specter one, we are ok, shield at 60% integrity but I had some good cover on me six so I should make it ok.”
“All right boys nice to hear, I’ve just spoken to the Dragon Talons and they say they got some minor damage as well. Ok, nomad kills are reported at fifty fighters and a gunboat, not bad boys. We are to hold this position until our backup arrives.”
“Who’s the backup?” Woods asked.
“It’s the dark legion. They just got back from their patrol in gamma and are refitting at the Reliance. ETA is forty-five minutes. I want us to establish a perimeter in a 2-kilometer circle around Freeport. Report in at five minute intervals.”
Once again, ‘rogers’ were heard over the line. Woods led the ship to a spot and settled the engines down to minimal throttle. He started to take out checklists and look through the ships various systems. “You ok back there Tom?” Woods asked. “Yeah I’m good, where did the Outcasts go, I can’t see them.”
“Oh they probably ran at the sight of the gunboat. A cowardly lot those Outcasts.”
Chapter Eight: Trickery is a Treacherous Business
“This is DT Hammer; we have numerous inbound vessels heading north to the Omicron Alpha jumphole. Their location is sector 4D, current speed 500 knots. Recommending an intercept course be set to sector 6E for all available units.”
“Specter One to DT Hammer, we copy your request and will relay it. Setting a new course for sector 6E, over and out.”
“Specter Wing this is Specter One, we have numerous nomad vessels heading north in sector 4D at 500 knots. Recommending all fighters relay to intercept course at 6E.”
“Specter leader to Specter Wing, belay that order, repeat, belay that order. We have a duty to protect Freeport 10. I will relay the info to the Reliance and we will wait to be called to assist.”
“Roger Specter Leader, we hold our perimeter,” Woods grumbled. “Hey Tom make sure that turrets off, we don’t need to waste any energy.”
The turret was already powered down so I just grunted a reply and continued to scan my radar. Occasionally, I would check the sky outside for any activity but nothing was there. Then I saw something on the radar. They were a series of bleeps that popped in and out at random.
“Hey Woods you getting this?”
“Yeah, looks like we got some cloakers. This should get interesting.”
“Specter Wing this is Specter One, we got nomad cloakers approaching fast and hard from the south. Looks like the alpha raid is a diversion, good call Pope.”
“Specter Wing this is Specter leader set up intercept course and blast em out of the sky. And yes, it seems that the Alpha raid is a diversion, but its nonetheless threatening. The Dark Legion has been diverted to assist in that defense, Looks like it is just us for now.”
“Roger Specter Leader, setting intercept course now. Tinker form up on my wing. Specter leader are you coming?”
“That’s an affirmative Specter One, I’ll be in the background watching, if you guys get into trouble call because I’m keeping my guns warmed up.”
We zoomed off into the distance and soon we could see the massive contrails of a fleet heading directly at us. “Um Woods, were gonna need some back up,” I said nervously.
“I think you’re right about that one Tom,” he replied. “Specter leader this is Specter One, we need immediate backup or we need to withdraw. Have you seen the size of this attack group?”
“I hear you Specter One and have already relayed your request to high command, but until they break through the nomads at the hole we are on our own, good luck men.
Then they came out of cloak. We saw that there were four nomad gunboats in tight formation. Each gunboat had its respective fighter wings, all of which were rapidly closing in on us.
“I hear you guys needed some help,” a voice came over the open channel. “Genesis Squad, TAKE OUT THOSE FIGHTERS. I’ll take out the gunboats.”
Over many whoops and hollers woods called out, “AMEN! Rev you just saved our butt.”
Then we got to the fighters. Wave after wave of fighters flew past us. It was like a sea of nomads; I powered up the turret and started shooting. Everywhere I shot, I connected with some form of nomad material. Then, an explosion rocked the ship, sending us reeling back into a sickening set of curves.
“HAHA! Scratch one for the rev!”
“TOM, KEEP THAT TURRET FIRE UP. Our shields are almost shot.” Woods was concentrating so hard on flying he did not even notice the shields had already been destroyed.
I turned the turret again and laid waste to anything I could see, and then I heard a snap and one of our wings ripped off. I heard Woods cursing behind me. Another large explosion sent our ship spinning, but this time it took us a while to get control again because our wing was not there to stabilize us. I almost threw up, but managed to stay under control. “Tom, make sure we keep that other wing on, were gonna need it,” Woods yelled from behind me.” Therefore, we spent the next twenty minutes blasting nomads out of the sky, during which we heard another large explosion but were far enough away from it that we were not thrown off course. Finally, we managed to dispatch the last fighter so we all turned to assault the remaining gunboat. Its turrets were already blown off and it looked like it was trying to escape.
“Where you goin Tree Hugger?” We all heard Rev say over the radio, just as he put the finishing shot into the gunboat’s hull. “WOOHOO, alright boys lets get outa here,” he continued.
“Roger that Genesis leader, Specter wing form up we’re heading back to Alpha. High command just authorized us to abandon Freeport Ten.” The Pope was telling us, “We are going to engage any retreating nomads, and dispatch them. It seems the Dark Legion routed them from the jumphole, but at least a squad of them got away.”
“No need to worry about that Popey,” Rev said, “My boys got them on our way here, time to get better communication relays.”
“Roger that Genesis leader, alright Specter once you reach Alpha head for the Reliance, uploading coordinates now.”
Chapter Nine: Required Rest
We parted ways with the Outcasts upon exiting the jumphole and cruised away to our home ship. Upon reaching it, we quickly docked our ships and were greeted by West himself. He walked up to us and shook each pilot’s hand. While this was happening, a medical crew was extracting Hearts from Tinker’s cargo hold.
“Is he going to be ok?” The Pope asked West.
“We’re not sure, but he should survive. Lucky you guys picked him up before he got hit by laser fire,” West responded. “Hey, I need you in the office for debriefing. It seems our nomad friends have found some new toys.”
With that Pope walked away with West and Woods led me off to our barracks. “We have to have at least four hours of sleep after each battle. It’s required rest,” Woods explained to me, “after those four hours you can do whatever you want. Most of us just sleep for a few more hours.”
Our barracks were nice and roomy but they seemed to lack the certain homeliness of my first room. That reminded me, “Hey Woods, when I first came here I was in a room that looked exactly like my old apartment. It even had the surrounding countryside out of the windows. What was it?”
“Oh that was the calm down room,” Woods replied. “It shows you your old home, some of us go there to relax and some of us go to get pumped to beat some nomads. We have lost a lot during this war and we want it back. Now you had better get some sleep, or West will make you sit out the next mission. He’s annoyingly strict on those things,” Woods added.
Part Three
Chapter Ten: Stabbing in the Dark
When I awoke from my sleep, I noticed I was alone in the room. The clock on the wall said I had been asleep for seven hours. “Dang, Woods should have woken me,” I thought to myself. I walked out into the corridor and down into our docking bay. Tinker was hovering around my vessel with a large welder in his hand. When I approached him, he looked up and said, “Hey Tom, slept in did you? Anyway, your ship came in earlier today. It’s a nice ship but it was beat up bad, I put in some new port guns and retuned your turret controls.”
“Thanks Tinker, do you think it’ll be ready for our next engagement?”
“Well, I have no idea when our next engagement is but it’ll be done soon.”
Before I had time to reply I heard a very loud shout and turned to see a medium built man, with wild eyes, come into the bay, closely followed by Nick West. “Hobbes you cant go rescuing the people of New Canada. There is no New Canada,” Nick was shouting but Hobbes did not seem to get the idea. “Come on West, you sent out patrols to Freeport Ten why cant you just let me sent the Forty-Fifth to get our people out of there?”
“HOBBES, THERE IS NO NEW CANADA. IT WAS NEVER SETTLED, GET OVER IT.” West looked fit to explode and stormed out the door he had just entered in.
“What was that about?” I asked Tinkerman.
“Oh that’s just Hobbes, he’s a good pilot but he lost a lot of, err, thinking power when he was ambushed by nomads on his way to New Canada.”
“New Canada, what’s that?”
“Oh, it’s the fabled land of bliss. The Xeno’s have used it in bedtime stories for centuries. They took in Hobbes when the first set of nomads came in and corrupted the house government. It seems Hobbes’ brain is set on finding that land.”
“Well sounds like a nice place. In fact it sounds a lot like Earth.” While I was remembering my fateful return to that system, I was also watching The Pope descend a ladder into the bay.
“Specter Wing on me,” he called and soon Woods, Tinker, and I had formed a circle around him. “Ok troops we got a new patrol route. We are going to head into Theta and rendezvous with the 45th Flying Tigers division near Freeport 9. From there we head to Sigma 17 to see how the mercenaries are holding up. We are to assist the Mercs in any way we can and see if we can draw out more of their gunboats.”
“The 45th, aren’t those the loons searching for New Canada.” Woods looked like he did not know whether to break out laughing or cry.
“Hehe, yeah Woods they’re the ‘loons,’ but keep total respect for them out there. As long as they fly beside us they are to be equals.”
“Pope, what is the strength of nomad patrols in Theta?” Tinker asked with a serious look on his face.
“We don’t know that. The 45th has broken off communication with everyone.”
“So we’re just stabbing into the dark?” Tinker replied.
“Looks like it.”
Chapter Eleven: A Position Empty
We quickly loaded our ships and headed for the Omicron Theta jumphole. Tinker had pulled some major mechanics to get my ship ready to fly and I was very grateful. Hearts was going to be out of action for a while, his injuries keeping him in the hospital for a long time.
“Ok boys, let’s get in formation. I like the look of that ship Tom how’s it flying?” The Pope asked.
“It flies well sir; I just hope it fights as good.”
“I’ve got the Theta jumphole in sight, preparing to dock.”
“Roger that Tinkerman, ok guys get ready to blast some nomads.”
We all proceeded into the jumphole and when we exited the anomaly, we saw a huge explosion. “What was that?” I yelled out.
“It came from the direction of Freeport Nine, Specter Wing move.” The Pope yelled out in reply.
We cruised along through asteroid infested nebulas until we finally reached Freeport Nine, what we saw astounded us. We saw that a nomad battleship had collided with the station and now the battleship had a huge gaping hole in its side.
“Where’s the 45th?” I yelled
“I don’t see any ship debris around here.”
“Aye, scanners report no human life forms in range. Oh great they must have gone searching for New Canada. Hey, Specters I got an idea you guys follow me, we’re going to go inside that battleship.”
“What?? Inside the battleship, are you crazy?”
“Yeah Tom, if we get inside it we can wreak havoc on em. In fact it’s the only way to kill a battleship without tons of torps.”
“If you say so pope, lead the way.”
We followed The Pope in; it was massive inside of there. The only thing inside of that hull was a small room in the exact center of the ship.
“That’s our target boys,” The Pope said, “engage at will. Wait, what is that. Watch out Specter we got incoming fighters. OH MY GOD, THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. GET OUTA THERE BOYS, RUN.”
However, the nomad fighters had blocked our exit. Hundreds of thousands of fighters were zooming out of the sides of the Battleship. “THIS ISN’T A BATTLESHIP, THIS IS A TRAP.” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“It was nice flying with you Tom.” And with that, Woods was blown out of the sky.
“Hull fractured; have to radio Reliance, ‘Reliance this is Specter leader, nomad trap, Freeport nine….NOOOOooooooo…..” And so ended the great and glorious Pope.
“Well Tom, I take my leave from you now.” And Tinker was gone.
“Now, no one here to see me die,” I thought. But wait, the button, if I press the button ill get out of here. Therefore, without a second to spare, I pressed the button, and once again, it all went black.
Chapter Twelve: A Missing Link
I awoke once again in the Calm room. “I really need to figure that button out,” I thought as I headed out into the corridor towards my docking bay. West intercepted me before I could get too far.
“Hey Tom, come with me the funerals about to start.”
“Funeral, you mean for the Specter wing?”
“Yes, you were lucky there. Too bad they don’t have your luck.”
He led me into a large room full of a mass of varied people. Around the room, I saw Reverend sitting in the corner eyeing the police and he saw the entire Dragon Talon squad lined around the caskets. I also saw some odd-looking people who West later told me were Blood Dragons. As I took my seat beside Nick West, an old man was walking up toward the stage.
“That’s Death Doctor Tom, he was one of the Liberty Security Force before the nomads came in.”
Death Doctor took up an old looking scroll; well all scrolls looked old because we use holograms nowadays, and started reading from it:
“Gather my children for a story I tell
Of secrets and mysteries and a great big well
Once far away, in the land of Crete
A young man grew up, His name was Pete
They called him that but really his name,
Was Marcos Riberia, true and fleet
Up he grew to a great height
Never would he take up his people’s plight
Always studying the books in his lords house
Never taking arms against a mouse
But one day that man
He lost his heart
To the annoying surgeons
Who replaced it with a dart
So now, he venges for blood and hope
All hail the great, victorious Pope
Gather again and I shall tell
The ending that does not end well
The Pope was flying along
One day with his wing close to his side
Into the ship, destroy it we shall
Popes bane would be his own pride
Inside the ship, it was all good
Until the ship started to become more than two
The ships came fast and hard they flew
No chance had the Pope or any of his crew
Cried out they did, but help was none
They knew today could not be won
But fight on they did for no choice they had
That outlook itself was very bad
So now, he has no use for soap
So ends the great victorious Pope.”
With that, Death Doctor left the stage and people got up to pay their respect to the dead and leave.
“What about the rest Nick?”
“You missed most of the ceremony Tom, ill have a copy of it sent up to your barracks later. Now go get some more sleep, we are getting reports that the Forty-Fifth is going awol and taking most of their sister fleets with them to go chasing after New Canada. They have taken heavy losses, if I ever see that Adam Schultz again, I will make him pay.” Now go get some sleep.”
Chapter Thirteen: An End in Sight
I was awoken from my sleep abruptly. I looked around to see what had awoken me when I felt the ship give a great lurch. Over the loudspeakers, I heard Nick West’s voice, “All fighters man your planes. This is not a drill.”
“What is this?” I was asking myself as I quickly clothed myself and ran out into the corridor. I saw many other pilots doing the same beside me. I got to my ship quickly and started up the engine; once it was started, I cruised out of the bay.
What I saw outside made me jump in fear. There were at least five nomad battleships, fifteen nomad cruisers and at least thirty wings of fighters. Not knowing what to do I formed up with the Dragon Talons and made for the nearest wing of fighters. Acenine was yelling out commands over his radio, “Dragonborn, take out their guns; Hammer watch that flak; Ogu take out that guy faster; TD stop talking and start fighting.”
Taking my cue I heading in, blasted away a fighter, and turned to finish off the rest of the wing when I heard over the line, “This is Genesis leader, we took out two of their battleships but you got about five more on the way. You guys better get out of here before they get….I’m hit I’m hit….mayday, mayday, Genesis leader is going down.”
Shaking off my shock, I waited for the call to retreat while dispatching nomad fighter after fighter. My wings were about to come loose when again over the radio I heard, “Reliance this is DT Three, I can see three nomad battleships incoming, oh god, that’s five battleships and ten more gunboats. They got cloakers.”
“Roger that DT Three this is Reliance, we are abandoning the Reliance, when given the signal set your course for the jumphole to Omicron Theta and from there to Omicron Gamma.”
I heard no “rogers” over the line; no one had time to acknowledge. I myself had lost my wings and most of my guns had been shot of but I continued to take on nomad fighters. Finally the signal came, the Reliance started to self-implode and we heard West over the line yelling to get out of here. We were all very happy to oblige. Unfortunately, we were not all lucky enough to get away.
“This is DT three, I am going down, repeat Mayday, mayday.” From the corner of my eye, I saw a poof and a once proud ship was reduced to scrap metal.
“HAMMMMER, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” came a yell from Acenine.
“Ok everyone through the jumphole, NOW.” West said, “Ill hold the nomads off till everyone is through.”
We all quickly readied our ships for docking and entered the jumphole at unsafe speed. We heard West say to us as we went through, “Ok that’s everyone; I’m coming through, and get ready to move everybody. Wait, CLOAKERS, everybody move do not wait for me go, go, go. Head for the Gamma jumphole, Juan Hernandez, safety….”
“Ok everybody you heard him let’s go,” Acenine said. “Hurry up, don’t lag behind, who knows where the nomads are.”
Then I heard more shouts on the radio. “I got contacts incoming on our scanners.”
“I’ve never seen reading like this before.”
“Those aren’t nomads; it must be that Juan Hernandez guy.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and slowed their ships to greet the incoming friends.
“Reliance leader to incoming craft, nice to see you,” Ace said over the open radio link.
“Hello Reliance leader, we have a gift for you,” said a high, scratchy voice, “Death.”
“RELIANCE GROUP THAT IS NOT HERNANDEZ LETS GET OUT OF HERE.”
Blinding flashes filled my view port as I pushed my engine’s throttle up and blasted past the incoming craft. I looked behind me and saw only one person behind me. I hailed him and he replied, “Hello Tom, this is C. Kork. I guess we the only ones left. Head for the jumphole, I sure hope those Corsairs are….” I looked back to see why he had stopped talking and saw a missile zoom in and destroy Kork’s hull.
“And now I am the only one left. Where are those Corsairs,” I thought to myself, and then I saw my answer. I saw about ten ships, all of which were mangled and destroyed tremendously but definitely, corsair built. Then their attackers showed up and started to work on me. I put my engine into overdrive and tried to shoot past them but they sent a slew of missiles my way. I could see the jumphole up ahead, I prepared my ship to dock, I was almost in when, BOOM, the missiles struck my ship and blew off my remaining guns. My ship was reduced to a smoking hull, when I finally exited the jumphole. I looked around and became confused. This was not Gamma, but it was beautiful. My systems went red, and I exploded in peace.
Tom Homely
