More on the way, I promise!!!
Thanks,
Micah
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
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My First attempt at a Freelancer Story!!
Read, add and comment on excellent written stories by fans, set within the Freelancer universe
72 posts
• Page 4 of 5 • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:21 pm
Hiya folks!
Sorry for the delay; I've had some SERIOUS writer's block! Never fear, however, I seem to have it cleared up and a new chapter for your enjoyment.
Thanks for reading.
Micah
Part 5
Chapter 1
Micah and Luther were stunned.
“Most think of the Zoners as the ‘leftovers’ of society in Sirius,” Kruger continued. “We simply continue to allow the citizens of the sector to indulge in this… illusion.”
“What are you then?” Micah asked, finding his voice again.
“A more apt, but far too revealing, name for our organization would be the ‘Watchers’,” Kruger replied.
“So why ‘Zoners’ then?” Luther asked.
“Actually, it’s a bit of a pun I’m afraid,” Luther said, the corners of his mouth twisting toward the floor. “We occupy the ‘zones’ between the House militaries and the mercenaries, between the mercenaries and the rebels, between the rebels and the pirates, the pirates and the corporations, and the corporations and the freelancers.”
“And what do you do?” Micah asked simply.
“We are the eyes and the ears of the entire Sirius sector,” Kruger answered. “We have operatives in every navy, criminal organization and corporation in known space. The Freeport stations are only the most visible part of a vast network. Most of the time we watch and wait, gathering bits of information from distant corners of Sirius and putting them together. Occasionally, like now, a situation arises that calls for more direct action.”
“I’ve noticed,” Micah replied, glancing around the room again. “But why? What is your purpose?”
“The Zoners fight for the people of Sirius,” Kruger said. “All of them.”
“What do you mean, ‘all of them’?” Luther asked, chiming in with a question of his own.
“The corporations and pirate groups only care about the lining of their pockets,” Kruger answered. “The House governments are not to be trusted, constantly scheming against one another militarily and economically. No doubt you’ve seen evidence of this yourselves. Why else would you be freelancers? With all the machinations and ulterior motives just who is left, or can be trusted for that matter, to protect the people of the Sirius sector?”
“The Zoners fill that gap,” Kruger continued. “Governments and corporations may come and go but the people, the people gentlemen will always make up the very fabric of society. We believe that the people of Sirius are its most important ‘faction,’ Mr. Luther, the only faction that really matters.”
Micah knew, and on some level had always known, that Kruger was right. Growing up on Planet Houston, Micah had witnessed first hand how downtrodden most people really were. Later, in the Liberty Navy, Micah had been forced to fight against many of his own people, people driven to a life of crime and piracy out of desperation for something better and anger at those who seemed to be withholding it. Glancing at Luther, sitting next to him, Micah knew Luther was thinking the same thing. Much of the Bretonian population lived in worse conditions than those in the Texas system.
“We believe that the people of Sirius would benefit greatly from anti-matter technology,” Kruger went on. “The GMG wants to make sure that the sector continues to be dependent on them for H-fuel.”
“You gentlemen happen to be present at something of an historic event,” Kruger continued. “This is only the fourth time that a Council of the Zoners has been held. Normally, we operate in separate and distinct cells. The Freeport stations have proven to be an invaluable method of information gathering, as have our operatives in the various organizations of the sector.”
“Why meet now?” Luther asked. “Because of this reaction chamber thing?”
“Exactly,” Kruger replied. “We must decide what is to be done with it if it can be recovered before the GMG can pinpoint its location.”
“And Luther and I?” Micah asked. “What about us?”
“Yours and Luther’s services have been invaluable,” Kruger replied. “My arrival on Bruchsal Base would have been significantly, if not permanently, delayed had it not been for your superb piloting and Mr. Luther’s accurate gunnery skills. We believe the two of you will be crucial in the recovery the reaction chamber as well but first, the Council must discuss the recovery of the reaction chamber and its implications.”
The double doors behind Micah hissed open and he looked over his shoulder to see a guard in a Bunschuh uniform standing in the opening.
“If you will follow the guard, gentlemen,” Kruger said motioning toward the man in uniform, “he will escort you back to our quarters. As soon as the Council meeting has ended I will rejoin you with our instructions.”
Micah and Luther rose, heads spinning at the eye-opening revelation that Kruger had just delivered, and followed the guard through the doors and down the corridor toward the turbolift. Looking back over his shoulder, Micah saw Kruger sit down at the end of the long, black table as the doors hissed shut. Stepping into the turbolift with Luther and their silent escort, Micah wondered if the sector would ever look the same again. He was still wondering as the turbolift dropped into the depths of the asteroid base.
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Sorry for the delay; I've had some SERIOUS writer's block! Never fear, however, I seem to have it cleared up and a new chapter for your enjoyment.
Thanks for reading.
Micah
Part 5
Chapter 1
Micah and Luther were stunned.
“Most think of the Zoners as the ‘leftovers’ of society in Sirius,” Kruger continued. “We simply continue to allow the citizens of the sector to indulge in this… illusion.”
“What are you then?” Micah asked, finding his voice again.
“A more apt, but far too revealing, name for our organization would be the ‘Watchers’,” Kruger replied.
“So why ‘Zoners’ then?” Luther asked.
“Actually, it’s a bit of a pun I’m afraid,” Luther said, the corners of his mouth twisting toward the floor. “We occupy the ‘zones’ between the House militaries and the mercenaries, between the mercenaries and the rebels, between the rebels and the pirates, the pirates and the corporations, and the corporations and the freelancers.”
“And what do you do?” Micah asked simply.
“We are the eyes and the ears of the entire Sirius sector,” Kruger answered. “We have operatives in every navy, criminal organization and corporation in known space. The Freeport stations are only the most visible part of a vast network. Most of the time we watch and wait, gathering bits of information from distant corners of Sirius and putting them together. Occasionally, like now, a situation arises that calls for more direct action.”
“I’ve noticed,” Micah replied, glancing around the room again. “But why? What is your purpose?”
“The Zoners fight for the people of Sirius,” Kruger said. “All of them.”
“What do you mean, ‘all of them’?” Luther asked, chiming in with a question of his own.
“The corporations and pirate groups only care about the lining of their pockets,” Kruger answered. “The House governments are not to be trusted, constantly scheming against one another militarily and economically. No doubt you’ve seen evidence of this yourselves. Why else would you be freelancers? With all the machinations and ulterior motives just who is left, or can be trusted for that matter, to protect the people of the Sirius sector?”
“The Zoners fill that gap,” Kruger continued. “Governments and corporations may come and go but the people, the people gentlemen will always make up the very fabric of society. We believe that the people of Sirius are its most important ‘faction,’ Mr. Luther, the only faction that really matters.”
Micah knew, and on some level had always known, that Kruger was right. Growing up on Planet Houston, Micah had witnessed first hand how downtrodden most people really were. Later, in the Liberty Navy, Micah had been forced to fight against many of his own people, people driven to a life of crime and piracy out of desperation for something better and anger at those who seemed to be withholding it. Glancing at Luther, sitting next to him, Micah knew Luther was thinking the same thing. Much of the Bretonian population lived in worse conditions than those in the Texas system.
“We believe that the people of Sirius would benefit greatly from anti-matter technology,” Kruger went on. “The GMG wants to make sure that the sector continues to be dependent on them for H-fuel.”
“You gentlemen happen to be present at something of an historic event,” Kruger continued. “This is only the fourth time that a Council of the Zoners has been held. Normally, we operate in separate and distinct cells. The Freeport stations have proven to be an invaluable method of information gathering, as have our operatives in the various organizations of the sector.”
“Why meet now?” Luther asked. “Because of this reaction chamber thing?”
“Exactly,” Kruger replied. “We must decide what is to be done with it if it can be recovered before the GMG can pinpoint its location.”
“And Luther and I?” Micah asked. “What about us?”
“Yours and Luther’s services have been invaluable,” Kruger replied. “My arrival on Bruchsal Base would have been significantly, if not permanently, delayed had it not been for your superb piloting and Mr. Luther’s accurate gunnery skills. We believe the two of you will be crucial in the recovery the reaction chamber as well but first, the Council must discuss the recovery of the reaction chamber and its implications.”
The double doors behind Micah hissed open and he looked over his shoulder to see a guard in a Bunschuh uniform standing in the opening.
“If you will follow the guard, gentlemen,” Kruger said motioning toward the man in uniform, “he will escort you back to our quarters. As soon as the Council meeting has ended I will rejoin you with our instructions.”
Micah and Luther rose, heads spinning at the eye-opening revelation that Kruger had just delivered, and followed the guard through the doors and down the corridor toward the turbolift. Looking back over his shoulder, Micah saw Kruger sit down at the end of the long, black table as the doors hissed shut. Stepping into the turbolift with Luther and their silent escort, Micah wondered if the sector would ever look the same again. He was still wondering as the turbolift dropped into the depths of the asteroid base.
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:36 pm
Finally!!! A new chapter. More to follow soon; thanks for reading.
Enjoy,
Micah
Part 5
Chapter 2
The movement of the asteroid field around the station was mesmerizing. Most of the time, space seemed a very still and quiet place to Micah but in the midst of an asteroid field in the Frankfurt system he was reminded that everything was actually in constant motion – the stars, planets, even entire galaxies. Micah’s current problems seemed insignificant by comparison.
The doors hissed open behind him and Kruger stepped in from the corridor beyond.
“Captain, Mr. Luther,” Kruger said as the two men stepped toward him. “I apologize for the delay but the Council only meets to discuss very serious matters. This matter is an extremely serious one.”
“What did the Council decide to do with the reaction chamber?” Luther asked.
“We will distribute the technology to every corporation and House government in the sector,” Kruger replied. “That should ensure its eventual development and application. It will, of course, be some years before anti-matter technology becomes common; we may not even see it in our lifetime. But the Zoners will set the process in motion and the Zoners will see it through.”
“We haven’t got the thing yet,” Micah put in. “What’s the plan?”
“It’s fairly simple really,” Kruger said. “You will lead the expedition, along with Mr. Luther and the Star Chaser, to Sigma 13. We’ve taken the liberty of upgrading your ship’s sensors since we landed; you should be able to pinpoint the approximate location of the reaction chamber with little difficulty once the sensors are supplied with the proper frequency.”
“We’ll be taking some back up along, I hope,” Micah said. “I’m sure the GMG will be out in force.”
“Very likely Captain,” Kruger replied. “That is why we will be sending you with a full wing of Stiletto fighters as an escort – piloted by Zoner agents of course.”
“Who’s leading the fighter wing?” Luther asked.
“I am,” Kruger said simply.
“I don’t think so,” Micah said, shaking his head. “I’m not heading out there with you leading our escort.”
“Captain, I assure you I am a fully qualified fi…,” Kruger started to respond.
“I don’t think you understand,” Micah interrupted. “I’m not going out there without you on the command deck of the Chaser.”
“But I…,” Kruger started again.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Micah said, a smile beginning to show on his face. “You’ve shown yourself to be an excellent navigator and I am damn sure that neither Luther nor I would be able to use that new sensing equipment like you could.”
“Besides,” Micah continued, grinning ear to ear now, “Luther and I are going to be too busy to fool around with sensors when we get there.”
“Then I accept,” Kruger said with a smile of his own. “Zoner Command will just have to find a replacement wing leader for this mission.”
“Glad to hear it Kruger,” Micah said. “Now let’s get going.”
“Right this way,” Kruger said stepping toward the door and into the corridor as it swished open for them.
“See, that wasn’t so hard,” Micah said quietly to Luther as they followed Kruger toward the hangar deck.
“I thought he’d never quit arguing!” Luther groused, shaking his head.
The trio made quick passage back through the corridors of the station and into the “natural” tunnel to the hangar deck. As they walked through the open archway and onto the deck, Micah noticed fighter pilots and maintenance crews prepping seven Stiletto fighters. Micah was glad to have that kind of firepower along. As the men approached the Star Chaser, however, Micah stopped short.
“What the hell….?” Micah asked.
Though it held no more weapons than when it had arrived, the Star Chaser seemed to be literally bristling with guns, weapons Micah knew he had not installed on his freighter.
“We took the liberty of making a few other ‘modifications’ while we were upgrading the sensors.” Kruger responded, looking at Micah hopefully.
“What do you mean, ‘modifications’?” Micah warily.
“The Star Chaser is now equipped with level seven turrets, guns, and now has a missile launcher and a more powerful mine dropper,” Kruger replied. “Upon making these modifications we 'realized' that a Clydesdale-class freighter does not have the power capacity to support these weapons so... we upgraded your power plant as well.”
“Kruger, I’m not sure what to say,” Micah said, looking at his ship appreciatively.
“You need say nothing my friend,” Kruger replied. “All I ask is that you do me one little favor upon our return.”
“What’s that?” Micah asked.
“Consider a proposal,” Kruger answered. “That I will make when our mission is complete.”
“Agreed,” Micah said shaking Kruger’s outstretched hand.
“Enough chatter,” Luther said, breaking in. “We’ve got a piece of science fiction to recover.”
The three men were soon in position on the command deck of the Star Chaser. Micah looked around the deck and approved of what he saw. He could get used to this.
The Star Chaser lifted herself off the hangar deck and through the airlock, followed by her escort of heavy fighters. Maneuvering through the asteroids, Micah nosed the ship around the station. It was still an amazing sight to Micah – an entire city cut out of the rock.
“Course laid in,” Kruger said from the nav computer. “Anytime you’re ready Captain.”
“All ships form up,” Micah said through the comm. “Engage cruise engines.”
The Star Chaser seemed to hesitate for a moment as if gathering her strength for a terrific leap. Within seconds, the cruise engines reached critical mass and the Star Chaser flung herself forward. The stars, and the asteroids, streaked past.
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Enjoy,
Micah
Part 5
Chapter 2
The movement of the asteroid field around the station was mesmerizing. Most of the time, space seemed a very still and quiet place to Micah but in the midst of an asteroid field in the Frankfurt system he was reminded that everything was actually in constant motion – the stars, planets, even entire galaxies. Micah’s current problems seemed insignificant by comparison.
The doors hissed open behind him and Kruger stepped in from the corridor beyond.
“Captain, Mr. Luther,” Kruger said as the two men stepped toward him. “I apologize for the delay but the Council only meets to discuss very serious matters. This matter is an extremely serious one.”
“What did the Council decide to do with the reaction chamber?” Luther asked.
“We will distribute the technology to every corporation and House government in the sector,” Kruger replied. “That should ensure its eventual development and application. It will, of course, be some years before anti-matter technology becomes common; we may not even see it in our lifetime. But the Zoners will set the process in motion and the Zoners will see it through.”
“We haven’t got the thing yet,” Micah put in. “What’s the plan?”
“It’s fairly simple really,” Kruger said. “You will lead the expedition, along with Mr. Luther and the Star Chaser, to Sigma 13. We’ve taken the liberty of upgrading your ship’s sensors since we landed; you should be able to pinpoint the approximate location of the reaction chamber with little difficulty once the sensors are supplied with the proper frequency.”
“We’ll be taking some back up along, I hope,” Micah said. “I’m sure the GMG will be out in force.”
“Very likely Captain,” Kruger replied. “That is why we will be sending you with a full wing of Stiletto fighters as an escort – piloted by Zoner agents of course.”
“Who’s leading the fighter wing?” Luther asked.
“I am,” Kruger said simply.
“I don’t think so,” Micah said, shaking his head. “I’m not heading out there with you leading our escort.”
“Captain, I assure you I am a fully qualified fi…,” Kruger started to respond.
“I don’t think you understand,” Micah interrupted. “I’m not going out there without you on the command deck of the Chaser.”
“But I…,” Kruger started again.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Micah said, a smile beginning to show on his face. “You’ve shown yourself to be an excellent navigator and I am damn sure that neither Luther nor I would be able to use that new sensing equipment like you could.”
“Besides,” Micah continued, grinning ear to ear now, “Luther and I are going to be too busy to fool around with sensors when we get there.”
“Then I accept,” Kruger said with a smile of his own. “Zoner Command will just have to find a replacement wing leader for this mission.”
“Glad to hear it Kruger,” Micah said. “Now let’s get going.”
“Right this way,” Kruger said stepping toward the door and into the corridor as it swished open for them.
“See, that wasn’t so hard,” Micah said quietly to Luther as they followed Kruger toward the hangar deck.
“I thought he’d never quit arguing!” Luther groused, shaking his head.
The trio made quick passage back through the corridors of the station and into the “natural” tunnel to the hangar deck. As they walked through the open archway and onto the deck, Micah noticed fighter pilots and maintenance crews prepping seven Stiletto fighters. Micah was glad to have that kind of firepower along. As the men approached the Star Chaser, however, Micah stopped short.
“What the hell….?” Micah asked.
Though it held no more weapons than when it had arrived, the Star Chaser seemed to be literally bristling with guns, weapons Micah knew he had not installed on his freighter.
“We took the liberty of making a few other ‘modifications’ while we were upgrading the sensors.” Kruger responded, looking at Micah hopefully.
“What do you mean, ‘modifications’?” Micah warily.
“The Star Chaser is now equipped with level seven turrets, guns, and now has a missile launcher and a more powerful mine dropper,” Kruger replied. “Upon making these modifications we 'realized' that a Clydesdale-class freighter does not have the power capacity to support these weapons so... we upgraded your power plant as well.”
“Kruger, I’m not sure what to say,” Micah said, looking at his ship appreciatively.
“You need say nothing my friend,” Kruger replied. “All I ask is that you do me one little favor upon our return.”
“What’s that?” Micah asked.
“Consider a proposal,” Kruger answered. “That I will make when our mission is complete.”
“Agreed,” Micah said shaking Kruger’s outstretched hand.
“Enough chatter,” Luther said, breaking in. “We’ve got a piece of science fiction to recover.”
The three men were soon in position on the command deck of the Star Chaser. Micah looked around the deck and approved of what he saw. He could get used to this.
The Star Chaser lifted herself off the hangar deck and through the airlock, followed by her escort of heavy fighters. Maneuvering through the asteroids, Micah nosed the ship around the station. It was still an amazing sight to Micah – an entire city cut out of the rock.
“Course laid in,” Kruger said from the nav computer. “Anytime you’re ready Captain.”
“All ships form up,” Micah said through the comm. “Engage cruise engines.”
The Star Chaser seemed to hesitate for a moment as if gathering her strength for a terrific leap. Within seconds, the cruise engines reached critical mass and the Star Chaser flung herself forward. The stars, and the asteroids, streaked past.
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:17 pm
Here's a new chapter. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading,
Micah
Chapter 3
Micah had never seen so much blue. If he hadn’t known any better he would have sworn the Star Chaser had emerged from hyperspace underwater; no stars were visible through the cloak of blue gas that filled the viewports of the Chaser’s command deck. The Sigma 13 system was located deep in the Crow Nebula – known for its beauty and its deadly gas pockets.
The short trip from Bruschal Base and the Frankfurt system had been surprisingly uneventful. Kruger directed the small but deadly fleet to a jump hole in the asteroid field that led to Sigma 13. The jump hole had the advantage of ending much closer to their destination than the jump gate from Frankfurt to Sigma 13 and would allow the convoy to arrive, hopefully, undetected.
Their destination, and their mission’s conclusion lay directly ahead of them.
“Activating sensors,” Kruger said as the Star Chaser and her escort powered up their engines after the jump. “I’ll have to increase the power to maximum to compensate for the nebula’s interference.”
While running the new scanners at maximum would make finding the reaction chamber much easier, Micah knew that it would also function as a homing beacon for anyone scanning the same frequency – and Micah was sure who that “anyone” would be.
“There goes the element of surprise,” Micah muttered.
“Scanning,” Kruger said, leaning forward into the green-blue glow of the scanner and navigation computer. “Just a moment… There! I think I’ve got it.”
Micah locked onto the waypoint Kruger had just created and engaged cruise engines. The wing of Stiletto fighters followed suit and the unlikely fleet cut its way through the thick clouds of the nebula.
“We’ll be coming up on Yanagi Depot momentarily,” Kruger said. “It’s a Junker outpost, the only one in the Crow Nebula if I’m not mistaken.”
“Shouldn’t we try and go around them?” Luther asked from the gunner’s chair.
“The Junkers shouldn’t bother with us,” Kruger responded. “We’re not carrying any cargo they would be interested in and any Junker vessel in the area will be able to see that our ship and our escort are more than a match for their CSVs.”
“The waypoint appears to be just on the other side of Yanagi,” Micah said, out of the pilot’s seat and looking over Kruger’s shoulder at the nav computer.
“Correct Captain,” Kruger replied. “The Junkers built Yanagi Depot here in an effort to take advantage of the unique salvaging opportunities that the 80 Years War presented. In fact, we should be entering the debris field very shortly.”
Returning to the pilot’s seat, Micah saw that Kruger had not been exaggerating. Within moments hunks of debris of a wild variety of sizes and shapes began to materialize out of the blue fog. The Star Chaser’s autopilot function began to make minor course corrections to avoid the larger pieces while smaller hunks of material occasionally ricocheted off the shields. Micah caught himself trying to identify the origin of the larger pieces of debris as the Star Chaser cruised around them. Most of the pieces seemed old and looked as though they had been battered both in battle and through collision with other objects in the field. Micah’s attention was soon drawn back to the situation at hand by a warning from the Star Chaser’s main computer.
“///Warning. Radiation damage detected.///” the mechanical female voice intoned.
Micah turned in his seat toward the nav computer and scanners.
“Kruger?” he asked.
“Expected Captain, but not dangerous,” Kruger replied. “Remnants of the destruction of the Rheinland fleet, the very destruction that produced the field we are traveling through now.”
“Hopefully we won’t be staying long enough to see if you’re right about the ‘not dangerous’ part,” Luther retorted.
The small fleet soon entered a clearing in the debris field; the cloud of artificial asteroids began to thin and, eventually vanish almost completely.
“Where’d it all go?” Luther asked no one in particular.
“If I had to guess I’d say we’ve entered the area of the debris field that the Junkers have managed to clear since they began operations in the nebula,” Micah answered.
“Correct again Captain,” Kruger said. “We are approaching the Yanagi Depot now.”
The Junker base emerged slowly from the blue mist of the nebula as if it was reluctant to be revealed. At first it appeared to be an abnormally large hunk of debris from the field passed over by the roaming CSVs because of its size or missed in the rolling blue fog. But as the convoy approached, the station began to take definite shape. Relative to the Star Chaser’s course, Yanagi Depot seemed to be constructed, largely, in a vertical configuration; spires extended from a central block surrounded by docking bays. The Star Chaser and the silent but ever present Stiletto wing passed by and were not even hailed by station control, the crew too busy with a constant flow of Junker ships, freelancer traffic, and even the odd Corsair pilot maneuvering into and out of the docking bays.
As the ships pulled away from the station, which receded quickly into the shroud of the nebula, new shapes began to poke through the clouds.
“What are those?” Micah asked, checking his instruments. “They look a lot like…”
“They are Captain,” Kruger answered. “This is all that remains of the Imperial Rheinland Expeditionary Fleet.”
The command deck of the Star Chaser quickly grew silent; all three men were simultaneously overcome with the feeling that they had stumbled onto a graveyard. In a very real sense they had; Micah shuddered to think how many men and women had died in the space of a few, short moments all those years ago.
Old, rotten hulks of Imperial battleships hung in the mist, the grey of the hulls standing out against the blue of the Crow Nebula. Some of the ships seemed relatively intact while others were strung out in pieces, some hundreds of kilometers from one another, the size and shape of the behemoths still discernible in the mist.
“So many,” Luther said, staring out front viewport and almost whispering. “I didn’t realize there were so many.”
“There were 48 ships in the fleet sent to Sigma 13,” Kruger replied, peering into the computer screen and manipulating the controls to bring up new data. “Scanners show enough material here to account for only 36 vessels however. I suspect some of the hulks in this graveyard have found a second career, probably as the main structure of Yanagi Depot.”
“Is the Munich still here?” Micah asked. “Please tell me the Junkers didn’t use it to build docking bay number 4 of their station.”
“Given the Munich’s last known position, just before the fleet was destroyed…,” Kruger said, operating the ship’s sensors as if they were an extension of his own senses. “The Munich should be located… here.”
A new waypoint appeared on the screen of the navigation computer and on the smaller nav screen next to the pilot’s seat. Micah and Luther returned to their respective positions and Micah turned off the autopilot and eased the Star Chaser toward the new waypoint.
“Going manual,” Micah said to the members of his own small crew and through the comm. system to the pilots of the Stiletto escort. “If the GMG decide to show up, it’ll be soon. Everyone stay sharp.”
The blue clouds seemed to close in even further now as Micah waited to be ambushed. While the Star Chaser remained at cruise velocity, the ship seemed to slow down as if the gases of the nebula were dragging her down, threatening to pull her into their depths like the Rheinland fleet before them.
“Approaching the Munich now,” Micah said, cutting the cruise engines and returning to normal power. “All ships stand clear. The Star Chaser will move in to retrieve the target while the res…”
“Multiple contacts incoming, Captain,” Kruger interrupted. “I read six… no, nine fighters on an intercept course.”
Six Hawk light fighters and three Falcon heavy fighters were bearing down on their position. Micah slammed the Star Chaser back into action, returning to full attack speed and laying into the thrusters. He heard the engines roar over the whine of the ship’s weapons charging.
“Luther – ready on those guns,” Micah barked over his shoulder. “All ships break and attack!”
P.S. - Fear not my friends, more is on the way!!! Also I'm taking suggestions for a title for the story so I can re-name the thread and eventually submit the completed story to TLR. I was thinking maybe "Zoners Can Remember." Any ideas???
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Edited by - mdutr0 on 8/5/2005 10:48:33 PM
Thanks for reading,
Micah
Chapter 3
Micah had never seen so much blue. If he hadn’t known any better he would have sworn the Star Chaser had emerged from hyperspace underwater; no stars were visible through the cloak of blue gas that filled the viewports of the Chaser’s command deck. The Sigma 13 system was located deep in the Crow Nebula – known for its beauty and its deadly gas pockets.
The short trip from Bruschal Base and the Frankfurt system had been surprisingly uneventful. Kruger directed the small but deadly fleet to a jump hole in the asteroid field that led to Sigma 13. The jump hole had the advantage of ending much closer to their destination than the jump gate from Frankfurt to Sigma 13 and would allow the convoy to arrive, hopefully, undetected.
Their destination, and their mission’s conclusion lay directly ahead of them.
“Activating sensors,” Kruger said as the Star Chaser and her escort powered up their engines after the jump. “I’ll have to increase the power to maximum to compensate for the nebula’s interference.”
While running the new scanners at maximum would make finding the reaction chamber much easier, Micah knew that it would also function as a homing beacon for anyone scanning the same frequency – and Micah was sure who that “anyone” would be.
“There goes the element of surprise,” Micah muttered.
“Scanning,” Kruger said, leaning forward into the green-blue glow of the scanner and navigation computer. “Just a moment… There! I think I’ve got it.”
Micah locked onto the waypoint Kruger had just created and engaged cruise engines. The wing of Stiletto fighters followed suit and the unlikely fleet cut its way through the thick clouds of the nebula.
“We’ll be coming up on Yanagi Depot momentarily,” Kruger said. “It’s a Junker outpost, the only one in the Crow Nebula if I’m not mistaken.”
“Shouldn’t we try and go around them?” Luther asked from the gunner’s chair.
“The Junkers shouldn’t bother with us,” Kruger responded. “We’re not carrying any cargo they would be interested in and any Junker vessel in the area will be able to see that our ship and our escort are more than a match for their CSVs.”
“The waypoint appears to be just on the other side of Yanagi,” Micah said, out of the pilot’s seat and looking over Kruger’s shoulder at the nav computer.
“Correct Captain,” Kruger replied. “The Junkers built Yanagi Depot here in an effort to take advantage of the unique salvaging opportunities that the 80 Years War presented. In fact, we should be entering the debris field very shortly.”
Returning to the pilot’s seat, Micah saw that Kruger had not been exaggerating. Within moments hunks of debris of a wild variety of sizes and shapes began to materialize out of the blue fog. The Star Chaser’s autopilot function began to make minor course corrections to avoid the larger pieces while smaller hunks of material occasionally ricocheted off the shields. Micah caught himself trying to identify the origin of the larger pieces of debris as the Star Chaser cruised around them. Most of the pieces seemed old and looked as though they had been battered both in battle and through collision with other objects in the field. Micah’s attention was soon drawn back to the situation at hand by a warning from the Star Chaser’s main computer.
“///Warning. Radiation damage detected.///” the mechanical female voice intoned.
Micah turned in his seat toward the nav computer and scanners.
“Kruger?” he asked.
“Expected Captain, but not dangerous,” Kruger replied. “Remnants of the destruction of the Rheinland fleet, the very destruction that produced the field we are traveling through now.”
“Hopefully we won’t be staying long enough to see if you’re right about the ‘not dangerous’ part,” Luther retorted.
The small fleet soon entered a clearing in the debris field; the cloud of artificial asteroids began to thin and, eventually vanish almost completely.
“Where’d it all go?” Luther asked no one in particular.
“If I had to guess I’d say we’ve entered the area of the debris field that the Junkers have managed to clear since they began operations in the nebula,” Micah answered.
“Correct again Captain,” Kruger said. “We are approaching the Yanagi Depot now.”
The Junker base emerged slowly from the blue mist of the nebula as if it was reluctant to be revealed. At first it appeared to be an abnormally large hunk of debris from the field passed over by the roaming CSVs because of its size or missed in the rolling blue fog. But as the convoy approached, the station began to take definite shape. Relative to the Star Chaser’s course, Yanagi Depot seemed to be constructed, largely, in a vertical configuration; spires extended from a central block surrounded by docking bays. The Star Chaser and the silent but ever present Stiletto wing passed by and were not even hailed by station control, the crew too busy with a constant flow of Junker ships, freelancer traffic, and even the odd Corsair pilot maneuvering into and out of the docking bays.
As the ships pulled away from the station, which receded quickly into the shroud of the nebula, new shapes began to poke through the clouds.
“What are those?” Micah asked, checking his instruments. “They look a lot like…”
“They are Captain,” Kruger answered. “This is all that remains of the Imperial Rheinland Expeditionary Fleet.”
The command deck of the Star Chaser quickly grew silent; all three men were simultaneously overcome with the feeling that they had stumbled onto a graveyard. In a very real sense they had; Micah shuddered to think how many men and women had died in the space of a few, short moments all those years ago.
Old, rotten hulks of Imperial battleships hung in the mist, the grey of the hulls standing out against the blue of the Crow Nebula. Some of the ships seemed relatively intact while others were strung out in pieces, some hundreds of kilometers from one another, the size and shape of the behemoths still discernible in the mist.
“So many,” Luther said, staring out front viewport and almost whispering. “I didn’t realize there were so many.”
“There were 48 ships in the fleet sent to Sigma 13,” Kruger replied, peering into the computer screen and manipulating the controls to bring up new data. “Scanners show enough material here to account for only 36 vessels however. I suspect some of the hulks in this graveyard have found a second career, probably as the main structure of Yanagi Depot.”
“Is the Munich still here?” Micah asked. “Please tell me the Junkers didn’t use it to build docking bay number 4 of their station.”
“Given the Munich’s last known position, just before the fleet was destroyed…,” Kruger said, operating the ship’s sensors as if they were an extension of his own senses. “The Munich should be located… here.”
A new waypoint appeared on the screen of the navigation computer and on the smaller nav screen next to the pilot’s seat. Micah and Luther returned to their respective positions and Micah turned off the autopilot and eased the Star Chaser toward the new waypoint.
“Going manual,” Micah said to the members of his own small crew and through the comm. system to the pilots of the Stiletto escort. “If the GMG decide to show up, it’ll be soon. Everyone stay sharp.”
The blue clouds seemed to close in even further now as Micah waited to be ambushed. While the Star Chaser remained at cruise velocity, the ship seemed to slow down as if the gases of the nebula were dragging her down, threatening to pull her into their depths like the Rheinland fleet before them.
“Approaching the Munich now,” Micah said, cutting the cruise engines and returning to normal power. “All ships stand clear. The Star Chaser will move in to retrieve the target while the res…”
“Multiple contacts incoming, Captain,” Kruger interrupted. “I read six… no, nine fighters on an intercept course.”
Six Hawk light fighters and three Falcon heavy fighters were bearing down on their position. Micah slammed the Star Chaser back into action, returning to full attack speed and laying into the thrusters. He heard the engines roar over the whine of the ship’s weapons charging.
“Luther – ready on those guns,” Micah barked over his shoulder. “All ships break and attack!”
P.S. - Fear not my friends, more is on the way!!! Also I'm taking suggestions for a title for the story so I can re-name the thread and eventually submit the completed story to TLR. I was thinking maybe "Zoners Can Remember." Any ideas???
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Edited by - mdutr0 on 8/5/2005 10:48:33 PM
Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:57 pm
Good fic man. I wish I could make a fic like the ones here. I did an Inuyasha fic once lol and it was long and great. But stupid fanfic.net deleted it cuz it was an "adult only" things. To them I say fu%$ you!!! Anyhoo great fic man. Good detail and sailing right along to keep me reading.
Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:05 pm
Oh yeah this fic is money.
If I can make one suggestion though...
It's really not a big deal though. And I like your title idea.
If I can make one suggestion though...
It's is a bit long for a single sentence, imo - especially given how you've structured it. Better to put a period in after "station control", or maybe go for something like: Station control was too busy with a constant flow of Junker ships, freelancer traffic, and even the odd Corsair pilot maneuvering into and out of the docking bays to bother with the Star Chaser and its silent but ever present escorts.
The Star Chaser and the silent but ever present Stiletto wing passed by and were not even hailed by station control, the crew too busy with a constant flow of Junker ships, freelancer traffic, and even the odd Corsair pilot maneuvering into and out of the docking bays.
It's really not a big deal though. And I like your title idea.
Sun Aug 07, 2005 7:50 pm
Thanks for the feedback and title suggestions!! I'm always open to grammatical suggestions as well; the title of the this thread should tell you why...
Still haven't decided about the title - I'm still hoping for more suggestions. The more ideas the better!
At any rate, a new chapter should be up soon - hopefully by the end of the week. I am out of town this week though so the demon of delay could rear its ugly head. Hopefully it won't though and I'll get a chance to write a bit more. We're actually nearing the end....
Thanks,
Micah
P.S. - I was thinking of writing another story or two concerning the same characters and, of course, involving the Zoners. Would anyone be interested in reading them?
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Still haven't decided about the title - I'm still hoping for more suggestions. The more ideas the better!
At any rate, a new chapter should be up soon - hopefully by the end of the week. I am out of town this week though so the demon of delay could rear its ugly head. Hopefully it won't though and I'll get a chance to write a bit more. We're actually nearing the end....
Thanks,
Micah
P.S. - I was thinking of writing another story or two concerning the same characters and, of course, involving the Zoners. Would anyone be interested in reading them?
"I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights." - Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
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