Chapter 1
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The silence was deafening

Taku Isaki sat quietly in his Eagle, gazing in shock at the debris slowly filtering throughout the vast, grey gasses of the Crow. There was nothing left of the cold steel and flourescent lights that had been his home for as long as he could remember. It was all shards of metal and dust, all destroyed. Nothing now stood at the trade lane crossing this empty bleakness called Sigma 13. Nothing between Helgoland and the jumpgate. A mere void, nothingness.

Naha was destroyed, that much was clear. The oldest base of the once-proud Gas Miner's Guild, the one that started it all. And along with it, everything Taku had ever held dear.

That wasn't quite true, he thought to himself. His parents, friends, and fiance were still on a trade mission at Aomori. He didn't really have much left at the station, other than a lifetime of memories, stemming from the day he had arrived at the station, a young child of only five, all the way to the present. No, there was nothing material lost with the station. Just half his heart, half his identity, blown away and exploded with the torpedoes that destroyed Naha. What was left? The station, its metal statues looming over the Gas Miners, the super fuel treating plants...gone. Like a candle blowing in the wind.

Lost, he thought, as warm tears trickled down his face. I'm like a tree, robbed of its roots.

His wingmen exchanged glances. They were from Ogashawa, the luxurious base three systems away. They wouldn't understand,[/i[ thought Taku. [iThe pain of losing your home.

That much was true. Osu in particular had absolutely no idea what was wrong with Taku--the normally calm, controlled pilot was breaking down, audibly sobbing into his intercom. He switched over to a secure channel with another wingman--Rick Johnston, a former IMG miner.
"What the hell is up with Taku? He's acting like someone just killed and raped his family or somethin'."

"I got no idea," replied the Leeds-born pilot. "we've got to beat some sense into him."

"Hah. Like that's going to happen. Hey, Taku! Watcha doing over there, man? We have to get going! Back to Aomori to report this or something." Osu was starting to get worried about his wingmate.

Taku wiped his eyes. One thing was clear to him, only one thing present in his mind. Whoever did this--Rhineland, IMG, Junkers, or even Corsairs--had to be punished. "That's a negative, boys. We're going to Planet Malta."

"But that's an Outcast planet man!" Rick was shocked.

"Exactly. Let's move it!" As a gas miner loomed into view, looking for the remnants of Naha to deposit its cargo, the three Eagles took off into the bleak grey-blue nebula called Crow.

You haven't lost any of your writing skill, Wilde!

that's good to know. I don't think this thing is going to be as good as Ender of Ages, but I don't think it'll be half bad. The next chapter will be up in the morning

sounds awesome Wilde! Keep it up .

Here's chapter 2. This thing is either going to be 3 or 4 chapters long--I prefer shorter fanfics, I think.

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The green orb of Planet Malta loomed out of the cold darkness infesting Omicron Alpha. Rick shivered at the sight--in his entire life, he had barely ever left the Walker cloud of Omega 7 or the Crow nebula that blanketed the Sigmas. Now this clear, unobscured view of space chilled him as he, Osu, and Taku cruised into the darkness. The thought that Malta was controlled by Outcasts--in fact the centre of their crime ring--didn't exactly comfort the man.

Taku was not similarly bothered, though if he had been perfectly sane at the time he probably would have been. He himself had never stepped outside the lush purple-blue patterns that flowed throughout Kusari and the Sigmas. The blackness of Omicron Alpha under any other circumstances would have affected him, except Taku had only one thing on his mind: revenge. On the Corsairs who had raided his station, the IMG that had bankrupted his Guild, on the Rhineland ships that had surely destroyed Naha. In his mind, there was only one path to vengeance.

Osu and Rick both thought he had gone crazy, seeking out the Outcasts' home planet. For revenge? What revenge could be gained from allying with the most base people in Sirius? And for all they knew, it was Outcasts and not Rhinelanders that had destroyed the Guild's base. The two had pleaded to Taku all the way on their voyage through Kusari and the Taus, but....

"The man's stubborn, no doubt about that" Rick muttered to Osu over the intercom.

The three Eagles landed on Malta. Osu could see that it was not nearly as...aesthetic as the kind of warm island planets Kusari harboured. On the contrary, Malta was desolate, rugged, wild. Untamed. Yet beautiful in its own way...as he exited his Eagle, he noticed several people staring at them. No wonder. Three "freelancers" landing out of nowhere on Malta wasn't a common sight. So these were the Outcasts then--a rabble of stoned pirates and murderers, loathed by every man, woman, and child in civilized Sirius...but were they? Osu gazed at them. He, in the childish way he was accustomed, had always had a mental image of Outcasts being demonic, cruel, monstrous even. But these...these people staring at them were just people. Just another drop of water in the ocean of life. A few more lost souls stuck to Indra's web, meaninglessly trying to salvage the vestiges of art and wisdom among a wrecked and decadent society. Mere--

"Hey Osu! Keep up." Rick called out to him. "Honestly, stop drifting off in the middle of a freakin landing pad. Save your philosophizing for a better time."

Osu smarted. Unlike the other two he had undergone a serious education (at Cambridge, even), and was devoted to what Rick and Taku percieved as deliberate insanity. "Fine. Where are we going anyway?"

"Ask the madman. I think he's headed to see the Dons."

Rick and Osu sat in the Malta bar, quietly sipping the strong Outcast ale--so different from the mild Kusari saki they were used to--and waiting for Taku to exit from his meeting with the Dons. In the five or so hours they waited, they became the subject of first the attention and then the constant questioning of the Outcast population that passed through the bar. Soon the two friends found themselves strangely enjoying the raucous fights and loudmouthed conversations with the Outcasts--something they had never even dreamed of doing when they worked for the Mining Guilds. Osu found himself talking for hours to one of them--a girl named Ria---with a brilliant knowledge of both modern and ancient philosophy.

Finally Taku emerged from his meeting with the Dons, looking flushed and triumphant. "I ashume it...uh.... all went well then?" asked Rick, more than a little drunk.

"Yes. They've heard my story...and....well, they have no sympathy for the GMG. So I don't know why they listened, but they're letting us stay here...hijack some IMG convoys, get back at those dirty Rhinelanders..." Neither of the two were listening to him of course--they had stopped after he told them they were staying.

"It's strange" Osu muttered to his companion. "A few hours ago I would have hated this place. Now its great." Rick, like a good Leedsman, was royally smashed and didn't have one working brain cell left to answer. He attempted to wave his mug instead.

Ria, the young Outcast, came back from the bar's counter with another mug in her hand. She handed it to Osu, who looked into it seeing instead of the dark black colour of Outcast beer he had been drinking, he saw a swirling multicoloured liquid.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Just the beer. Spiked with Cardamine." She looked indifferent.

Osu stood up and stared into the recesses of the glass. "It's a prison. An edible prison. I can't drink this, I'll be trapped. This thing is a cage!"

Ria merely sighed, then pressed herself against him and raised the glass to his lips. "No," she said, shaking her head. "It's freedom."

The liquid tasted sweet on his tongue.