Thanks for the compliments. and without more stuff about nothing...
-:-
16:
Colonel Gunter Waalbeck sat on the small bed filled with anger. He stood up and considered hammering the door a couple more times but decided against it. His chin ached with the punch Arania had delivered. Then it came to him. The EIR, Emergency Information Reporter. It was a little display that reported most things from troop movements right down to little unimportant details like how the minor system tech works in most modern firearms. It also ran on very fine circuitry, stolen Kusari technology that enabled it to carry on even through EMP and jamming interference. He hammered in to the map of the Sirius. There seemed to be a lot of heavily armed traffic steadily moving eastward.
There were a few military forces going there but most of the war carried on. The lights seemed to be getting dimmer. Arania had almost certainly left and the computer had somehow disappeared. He budged the door and it opened a tiny bit. Squeezing his fingers in, he then worked his arm into the gap, levering it open enough for him to get through. He ran through and looked at a map. It showed what appeared to be all Rheinland military forces heading to the Edge Nebula. He smiled. It was indeed fortunate and pleasantly surprising that the other houses seemed to think the Rheinlanders had taken away their cloaking technology. He plugged in his EIR and all the cloaked and secret black op Rheinland forces came into view. It showed a dramatically different view. The bulk of the Rheinland fleet was attacking Cambridge and the Kusari forces had been confined to Planet Kyushu where a massive land battle was taking place. There was a large war raging in the Hudson system and a stalemate in the Bering.
The AI had appeared to have transferred to another base so he set about destroying the Graviton defence cannon controls and walked smartly down to his ship and contacted the specialist Rheinland forces. "Black one niner niner come in this is Hawk do you read me?" After a long silence a much disrupted reply came through.
"Roger Hawk reading you loud and clear"
"Form onto me for pursuit of war criminal Arania" Waalbeck shot and closed the comm. No further words were required.
It had taken several hours but they had hacked the lock on the hyper-gate and flown into the system undetected. This was thanks to Katsu Sakai, a Kishiro executive who had been bribed to provide latest implants for all types of electronics and machinery to jam disrupter signals. They uncloaked just in front of the base and Sakai hacked the docking controls to open the docks manually. This was such an effort and burned the electronics so badly that it could only be used once but Waalbeck managed to squeeze in one with his best fighter Kappelhoff. Sakai and the other wingman flew off immediatly to avoid destruction leaving Waalbeck and Von Kappelhoff to either succeed or die
Kappelhoff checked his gun.
"Sir this is some serious jamming, not even Sakai's implants work." Waalbeck eyed the place warily.
"Well if we can't neither can he and besides I want to talk to him rather than kill him straight away"
"We can take him sir" said Kappelhoff confidently.
"No, no, no…" replied Waalbeck instantly.
"He has this bloody phoenix and this mysterious Darkstone."
"Right" replied Kappelhoff uncertainly.
Waalbeck strode up to what appeared to be a control centre.
"This is what we are looking for" he said in triumph. He and Kappelhoff started plastering the place is explosive, arming it immediatly so if one was tampered with or removed the rest would explode. As Kappelhoff set more and more explosive, Waalbeck strolled outside and noticed the Eagle and an Anubis silent in the docks. He narrowed his eyes and put on the dark vision optronics. Quickly he walked inside and got the dock controls wired to a handhold controller.
Then he put full lighting on to the area of space where the Eagle and Anubis sat waiting. Seeing nothing immediatly suspicious he sealed the centre up
"Arania, Darkstone? I know you're out there. We have this place wired," he briefly looking out to Kappelhoff who was still setting explosive and stopped working long enough to nod back at Waalbeck
"And we could destroy this place right now, even escape too if we're lucky enough. But since I have a feeling there's more to this than appears and you proclaim yourself innocent I'm gonna let you give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow this whole damn antique up.”
Kappelhoff finished and walked inside to join him. Waalbeck thought for a minute.
"And don't bring that damn bird back because I have a few antique weapons of my own that your computer can't disrupt" finished Waalbeck.
Kappelhoff raised his eyebrows. Waalbeck finished and handed him a very old gun that had been hurriedly restored. It was a very old automatic machine type gun with a wooden stock. "The AK-47 I believe" said Waalbeck. Kappelhoff looked at it uncertainly. Waalbeck was about to say something but then he heard a clank outside and a groan. Kappelhoff rushed outside to the stairs where a dark shape was crouched. It began to get up. Kappelhoff aimed the AK-47.
"Just give me a reason." he said evenly. Waalbeck put his hand over the gun.
“Wait,” he said.
-:-
You wanna revolution?
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Creator -:Updated since massive absence:-
Read, add and comment on excellent written stories by fans, set within the Freelancer universe
64 posts
• Page 3 of 5 • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Wed May 11, 2005 1:09 pm
Nice but wouldnt it make more since to say explosives instead of explosive in some parts of it like the last sentence said "plastering the place is explosvie" shouldnt it be "plastering the place with exsplosives".Hope it helped.Good luck on this awsome fanfic.
Btw i didnt see anything wrong with the other chaptaers that why i didnt say anything
.
Show You're Strenghts........
You've Earned You're Glory.......
Btw i didnt see anything wrong with the other chaptaers that why i didnt say anything
.
Show You're Strenghts........
You've Earned You're Glory.......
Thu May 12, 2005 12:09 am
I didn't actually write that section. that was done by Darkov... whatever he calls himself now. anyway, more goodness.
-:-
17:
"Just a matter of plugging it in..."
They were Kenji's last words. The Rheinland Military had hit Cambridge. They had hit hard.
A large beam had shaken loose and impaled him, the Nomad power supply falling to the ground. I panicked and dove to catch it, and did so with style, avoiding another falling cross-member. I grabbed A.K. and ran to the emergency exit. What I was greeted with was Rheinland military destroying all the ships on the landing pad. And there was a phase shift next to mine. In five seconds it was an explosion. The latest Z-Axis light Fighter was reduced to dust and vapour.
All I wanted to do was be a die-hard hero, but I knew better. I ran for the underground shelter, where Kenji's old Head-hunter was kept. Kenji had tweaked since I sold it to him, but it still had some of my personality imbedded in it.
In the basement of the research facility, the majestic ZX-17B Head-hunter was in pristine condition, like out of the showroom. Well, almost out of the showroom, there had been some modifications, like the addition of a passenger’s seat behind the pilot. Hopefully, the ports for A.K. were still functional, because I would need his help to get out of this.
I was about to get in and start this beast up when I heard a faint scream from the other side of the basement. I grabbed the stowed rifle from its compartment and moved in the direction of the sound.
What I saw from my dark corner was not what I wanted to see, hear or comprehend. The Rheinland military had obviously sent in their Schwartz Kommando; or Black Ops units to take out civilians and resistors. The problem is the Schwartz Kommando were sadistic criminals, rapists, serial killers and just plain ****ed up people. This one must have been convicted of rape. He was dragging a young research assistant by the hair to a secluded corner, forcibly I might add, as she was kicking and screaming all the way. He threw her against the wall, stunning her, and making her vulnerable. He knew he had her in his power, picking her up and putting on all fours, and readied himself for his twisted version of erotica. No way in hell would I allow this, would I allow this miscreant continue. Not while I have a weapon in my hands.
I took the shot.
Fate may hate having the Traveller stay still, but it gives great pleasure in giving him enormous amounts of luck. The shot passed straight through his head, hitting the centre of his brain, and leaving him slumped over his former victim. I ran over to asses the damage, even though I should have taken off already. The young woman was frozen with fear, and could not move a muscle, so I dragged the body away, put the girl over my shoulders and ran like hell back to Kenji's ship. I put the girl in the rear seat, jumped in the front, plugged A.K. into the I/O port, and hit the throttle as hard as I could. Before I had given Kenji this ship it was pretty fast. It was able to outrun nearly anything. It was made obsolete by faster engines, and it seems that Kenji had kept up. This ship had the same, if not more power than my Reflex. Now that is something. I quickly left the Rheinland invasion forces behind and headed for the docking ring. Well, where the docking ring was. Pieces of it lay embedded in the main landing pads of Cambridge. This was going to one hell of an escape. The Mooring fixtures were still in orbit however, so there was one thin ray of hope. Mooring fixtures use a small docking ring to allow travel to the surface. I hit that ring at full speed, losing the side cannons of Kenji's ship. I cringed when it happened, but then I realised they were easily replaceable Heavy Flashpoints.
The Rheinland fleet pursued me all the way to the New London jump hole, when which a group of Mollys kept them busy. I slipped through the jump hole and made my way to Sheffield station and prayed that the stranger whom I met in Liberty was waiting for me there.
-:-
You wanna revolution?
-:-
17:
"Just a matter of plugging it in..."
They were Kenji's last words. The Rheinland Military had hit Cambridge. They had hit hard.
A large beam had shaken loose and impaled him, the Nomad power supply falling to the ground. I panicked and dove to catch it, and did so with style, avoiding another falling cross-member. I grabbed A.K. and ran to the emergency exit. What I was greeted with was Rheinland military destroying all the ships on the landing pad. And there was a phase shift next to mine. In five seconds it was an explosion. The latest Z-Axis light Fighter was reduced to dust and vapour.
All I wanted to do was be a die-hard hero, but I knew better. I ran for the underground shelter, where Kenji's old Head-hunter was kept. Kenji had tweaked since I sold it to him, but it still had some of my personality imbedded in it.
In the basement of the research facility, the majestic ZX-17B Head-hunter was in pristine condition, like out of the showroom. Well, almost out of the showroom, there had been some modifications, like the addition of a passenger’s seat behind the pilot. Hopefully, the ports for A.K. were still functional, because I would need his help to get out of this.
I was about to get in and start this beast up when I heard a faint scream from the other side of the basement. I grabbed the stowed rifle from its compartment and moved in the direction of the sound.
What I saw from my dark corner was not what I wanted to see, hear or comprehend. The Rheinland military had obviously sent in their Schwartz Kommando; or Black Ops units to take out civilians and resistors. The problem is the Schwartz Kommando were sadistic criminals, rapists, serial killers and just plain ****ed up people. This one must have been convicted of rape. He was dragging a young research assistant by the hair to a secluded corner, forcibly I might add, as she was kicking and screaming all the way. He threw her against the wall, stunning her, and making her vulnerable. He knew he had her in his power, picking her up and putting on all fours, and readied himself for his twisted version of erotica. No way in hell would I allow this, would I allow this miscreant continue. Not while I have a weapon in my hands.
I took the shot.
Fate may hate having the Traveller stay still, but it gives great pleasure in giving him enormous amounts of luck. The shot passed straight through his head, hitting the centre of his brain, and leaving him slumped over his former victim. I ran over to asses the damage, even though I should have taken off already. The young woman was frozen with fear, and could not move a muscle, so I dragged the body away, put the girl over my shoulders and ran like hell back to Kenji's ship. I put the girl in the rear seat, jumped in the front, plugged A.K. into the I/O port, and hit the throttle as hard as I could. Before I had given Kenji this ship it was pretty fast. It was able to outrun nearly anything. It was made obsolete by faster engines, and it seems that Kenji had kept up. This ship had the same, if not more power than my Reflex. Now that is something. I quickly left the Rheinland invasion forces behind and headed for the docking ring. Well, where the docking ring was. Pieces of it lay embedded in the main landing pads of Cambridge. This was going to one hell of an escape. The Mooring fixtures were still in orbit however, so there was one thin ray of hope. Mooring fixtures use a small docking ring to allow travel to the surface. I hit that ring at full speed, losing the side cannons of Kenji's ship. I cringed when it happened, but then I realised they were easily replaceable Heavy Flashpoints.
The Rheinland fleet pursued me all the way to the New London jump hole, when which a group of Mollys kept them busy. I slipped through the jump hole and made my way to Sheffield station and prayed that the stranger whom I met in Liberty was waiting for me there.
-:-
You wanna revolution?
Fri May 13, 2005 7:19 am
18:
Arania floated outside the base, flying, or rather, trying to fly, the Dom'Kavash fighter that had been in the hangar only hours before. Thankfully, his extensive knowledge of both the Dom'Kavash and Nomad languages allowed him to read what was being projected to him on the cockpit window.
With difficulty, he aimed at the explosive charges lining the hangar, hoping that his holographic guise would hold out until he could fire.
The reticle armed and the two wing-wired graviton cannons prepared to fire.
Out of nowhere, a Titan decloaked and shot the Dom'Kavash fighter just as Arania pulled the trigger, sending the white bolts streaming into the base's shielding system.
Araminta lost her balance on the console and went sprawling to the floor as Prometheus, having been re-transmitted to onboard the fighter, tried to re-correct the path.
Arania spun around to face his assailant.
"Power down" came a female voice over the comm.
"Who is this?" Arania asked
"You should know who I am Proteus" The titan pilot replied
Arania flinched and gripped the back of his neck where the scar was.
Araminta’s eyes became glassy, blank, as Proteus the Nomad spoke:
"I should have known you would have followed me Hera"
"Yes, you should have known better" Hera replied.
"I suppose you planned the attack on the Rheinland convoy to lure me out?"
"Yes" Hera answered "Osiris was quite eager to try and commune with you in order to obtain your host's name"
"You used my brother" Proteus Gasped in anger "To get at me?"
"He was quite willing after I offered him a high-ranking military host" Hera replied
"You!" Proteus gasped "You, you, HYPOCRITE! YOU SAID YOU WOULD DIE FOR ME! YOU SAID I MEANT THE UNIVERSE TO YOU!"
"You did" Hera replied calmly "But ever since you stole that poor soul's body you broke my heart"
"I asked" Proteus said "Or rather, he offered. And I didn’t have a choice, either. I had to hide; otherwise Osiris would have assassinated me. He was jealous of me ever since I married you, and would do anything to get at you, including kill me. THAT’S WHY HE HELPED YOU!"
"Maybe," Hera replied "Maybe not, but that defeats the purpose of why I am here. To collect the bounty on your head and have my revenge"
Proteus released his control over Arania, who immediately swerved the ship to avoid the neutron bursts Hera was shooting at them.
It became obvious within 5 seconds that the Dom'Kavash were more advanced that the Corsairs, and Hera's ship floated, wrecked, through the system, ravaged by the ship's graviton bursts.
Engaging the ships jump drive, he headed for Alaska; at least he would be safe there until he could get to Sheffield station. Before he had left he updated his history of the comm-hack beacons in Liberty and overheard two pilots talking about going there, one 'doubting that Rheinland used battleships for supply runs'.
Maybe they could be of help.
Arania and his dæmon hung on as the jump drive hurled them, the ship, and Prometheus millions of light-years into the war-torn Sirius sector.
-:-
You wanna revolution?
Arania floated outside the base, flying, or rather, trying to fly, the Dom'Kavash fighter that had been in the hangar only hours before. Thankfully, his extensive knowledge of both the Dom'Kavash and Nomad languages allowed him to read what was being projected to him on the cockpit window.
With difficulty, he aimed at the explosive charges lining the hangar, hoping that his holographic guise would hold out until he could fire.
The reticle armed and the two wing-wired graviton cannons prepared to fire.
Out of nowhere, a Titan decloaked and shot the Dom'Kavash fighter just as Arania pulled the trigger, sending the white bolts streaming into the base's shielding system.
Araminta lost her balance on the console and went sprawling to the floor as Prometheus, having been re-transmitted to onboard the fighter, tried to re-correct the path.
Arania spun around to face his assailant.
"Power down" came a female voice over the comm.
"Who is this?" Arania asked
"You should know who I am Proteus" The titan pilot replied
Arania flinched and gripped the back of his neck where the scar was.
Araminta’s eyes became glassy, blank, as Proteus the Nomad spoke:
"I should have known you would have followed me Hera"
"Yes, you should have known better" Hera replied.
"I suppose you planned the attack on the Rheinland convoy to lure me out?"
"Yes" Hera answered "Osiris was quite eager to try and commune with you in order to obtain your host's name"
"You used my brother" Proteus Gasped in anger "To get at me?"
"He was quite willing after I offered him a high-ranking military host" Hera replied
"You!" Proteus gasped "You, you, HYPOCRITE! YOU SAID YOU WOULD DIE FOR ME! YOU SAID I MEANT THE UNIVERSE TO YOU!"
"You did" Hera replied calmly "But ever since you stole that poor soul's body you broke my heart"
"I asked" Proteus said "Or rather, he offered. And I didn’t have a choice, either. I had to hide; otherwise Osiris would have assassinated me. He was jealous of me ever since I married you, and would do anything to get at you, including kill me. THAT’S WHY HE HELPED YOU!"
"Maybe," Hera replied "Maybe not, but that defeats the purpose of why I am here. To collect the bounty on your head and have my revenge"
Proteus released his control over Arania, who immediately swerved the ship to avoid the neutron bursts Hera was shooting at them.
It became obvious within 5 seconds that the Dom'Kavash were more advanced that the Corsairs, and Hera's ship floated, wrecked, through the system, ravaged by the ship's graviton bursts.
Engaging the ships jump drive, he headed for Alaska; at least he would be safe there until he could get to Sheffield station. Before he had left he updated his history of the comm-hack beacons in Liberty and overheard two pilots talking about going there, one 'doubting that Rheinland used battleships for supply runs'.
Maybe they could be of help.
Arania and his dæmon hung on as the jump drive hurled them, the ship, and Prometheus millions of light-years into the war-torn Sirius sector.
-:-
You wanna revolution?
Sun May 15, 2005 12:25 am
19:
As for Rheinland the war was going well. They had extracted revenge of the GMG and the Kusari Shogunate was in total ruin, Shogun Edo was in Vierlande Prison with common criminals and Emperor Kyu had been executed by a common Rheinland infantryman, a private in fact who had been taken out of service and richly rewarded for this small but apparently great deed. As the Rheinlanders mopped up on Kyushu they deployed Rheinland Federal Police squads to maintain Rheinland control and pacify any Kusari resistance.
Though on the east side of the Sirius the Rheinlanders were engaged in a furious battle with the Order and were not going as well. The Order, with extensive knowledge of the Edge Nebula, with specially designed shields to cut down on radiation damage, scanned through the misty clouds and cut off Rheinland supply routes and patrols. Though with the Colditz system churning out millions more troops and ships the Order feared they would lose this war by attrition or eventually have to maintain a low key guerrilla war to keep the Rheinlanders on their toes in the Edge Nebula.
The Bretonians were putting up a brave defence in the Cambridge system but pulled back to the New London system to shorten supply routes and split up to travel to defence plans in Leeds to guard against the growing threat from Kusari controlled Rheinland.
Liberty after its bold attack into the Bering and Hudson systems reduced the ferocity of the fighting by sending some of their forces to fortify the Colorado system, also threatened by Kusari controlled Rheinland. Even though they had an advantage, Liberty sent Ageira workers to disable the trade lanes and jump gates in the Kepler and Galileo systems, intending to hinder Rheinland's uncontrolled expansion into Liberty.
And if this wasn't enough most criminal organizations were engaging war on Rheinland forces realizing that they could not survive long under a Rheinland police state. The Outcasts had even gone as far as to strike deals with the Bretonian parliament, making Outcast controlled systems a haven for Bretonian refugees and defence forces and were also sending their best pilots to fight for Bretonia including Santiago Lorenz, their best pulled out of retirement.
The Rheinland forces had conquered all of Kusari, the Omegas, the Sigmas and at least temporarily a small part of Bretonia through their Blitzkrieg. The Rheinland war machine was running out of steam as the Free Forces of the Sirius or FFS as they had come to be known pulled together. Bounty hunters worked alongside notorious Outcast and Corsair criminals while even the cynical Xenos came though they kept to themselves. The Zoners remained neutral having seemingly been ignored by the Rheinlanders. And while many a common criminal flew alongside a Navy hero or patriotic merchant the Rheinlanders were far from defeated. If they even got close to capturing back systems stolen by the Rheinlanders it was going to take a lot of bloodshed.
While technicians and mechanics and pilots of every creed and house worked together to undo the Rheinland war machine the Rheinlanders licked their wounds and dug-in deeply, determined to keep their hard won ground, or space as it was.
-:-
Waalbeck woke to emptiness, groaning. "Christ my head hurts!" he yelled to no-one in particular. Kappelhoff was unconscious beside him. Slowly he got up as well. The explosives had been set off somehow but this base had held together. Waalbeck shook his head and carried Kappelhoff towards the undamaged Valkrye. He shoved Kappelhoff behind his seat and slowly manoeuvred his ship out with the hand held dock control he had rigged up. He realised his real place now was with the fighting in the Sirius. Anyway, the pursuit of Arania was getting annoying.
On the long trip back he reflected on the past decade. The war, the military build-up, even back when he was first shown the Colditz system, there was no real point in a complete take-over of the Sirius he thought. Then a very troublesome thought crept into his mind. He was presented with a cross-road. Should he fight for this new Freedom force? After all you could compare Rheinland now with the old Coalition. It was the same old evil force questing for domination. As he arrived at a Rheinland outpost in the Omega 41 system he looked at the latest updates. Rheinland's expansion had been at least temporarily checked, apart from the Bretonian systems and they had dug in to defend their newly won territory.
He sighed as he realised the thing he had to do. He walked back to his ship, kicked the sleeping Kappelhoff out and flew away, ignoring the calls for clearance. He flew far into the no-mans zone into the patrol path of an Order squad who proceeded to destroy him until he replied.
"I've come to work for you"
-:-
You wanna revolution?
As for Rheinland the war was going well. They had extracted revenge of the GMG and the Kusari Shogunate was in total ruin, Shogun Edo was in Vierlande Prison with common criminals and Emperor Kyu had been executed by a common Rheinland infantryman, a private in fact who had been taken out of service and richly rewarded for this small but apparently great deed. As the Rheinlanders mopped up on Kyushu they deployed Rheinland Federal Police squads to maintain Rheinland control and pacify any Kusari resistance.
Though on the east side of the Sirius the Rheinlanders were engaged in a furious battle with the Order and were not going as well. The Order, with extensive knowledge of the Edge Nebula, with specially designed shields to cut down on radiation damage, scanned through the misty clouds and cut off Rheinland supply routes and patrols. Though with the Colditz system churning out millions more troops and ships the Order feared they would lose this war by attrition or eventually have to maintain a low key guerrilla war to keep the Rheinlanders on their toes in the Edge Nebula.
The Bretonians were putting up a brave defence in the Cambridge system but pulled back to the New London system to shorten supply routes and split up to travel to defence plans in Leeds to guard against the growing threat from Kusari controlled Rheinland.
Liberty after its bold attack into the Bering and Hudson systems reduced the ferocity of the fighting by sending some of their forces to fortify the Colorado system, also threatened by Kusari controlled Rheinland. Even though they had an advantage, Liberty sent Ageira workers to disable the trade lanes and jump gates in the Kepler and Galileo systems, intending to hinder Rheinland's uncontrolled expansion into Liberty.
And if this wasn't enough most criminal organizations were engaging war on Rheinland forces realizing that they could not survive long under a Rheinland police state. The Outcasts had even gone as far as to strike deals with the Bretonian parliament, making Outcast controlled systems a haven for Bretonian refugees and defence forces and were also sending their best pilots to fight for Bretonia including Santiago Lorenz, their best pulled out of retirement.
The Rheinland forces had conquered all of Kusari, the Omegas, the Sigmas and at least temporarily a small part of Bretonia through their Blitzkrieg. The Rheinland war machine was running out of steam as the Free Forces of the Sirius or FFS as they had come to be known pulled together. Bounty hunters worked alongside notorious Outcast and Corsair criminals while even the cynical Xenos came though they kept to themselves. The Zoners remained neutral having seemingly been ignored by the Rheinlanders. And while many a common criminal flew alongside a Navy hero or patriotic merchant the Rheinlanders were far from defeated. If they even got close to capturing back systems stolen by the Rheinlanders it was going to take a lot of bloodshed.
While technicians and mechanics and pilots of every creed and house worked together to undo the Rheinland war machine the Rheinlanders licked their wounds and dug-in deeply, determined to keep their hard won ground, or space as it was.
-:-
Waalbeck woke to emptiness, groaning. "Christ my head hurts!" he yelled to no-one in particular. Kappelhoff was unconscious beside him. Slowly he got up as well. The explosives had been set off somehow but this base had held together. Waalbeck shook his head and carried Kappelhoff towards the undamaged Valkrye. He shoved Kappelhoff behind his seat and slowly manoeuvred his ship out with the hand held dock control he had rigged up. He realised his real place now was with the fighting in the Sirius. Anyway, the pursuit of Arania was getting annoying.
On the long trip back he reflected on the past decade. The war, the military build-up, even back when he was first shown the Colditz system, there was no real point in a complete take-over of the Sirius he thought. Then a very troublesome thought crept into his mind. He was presented with a cross-road. Should he fight for this new Freedom force? After all you could compare Rheinland now with the old Coalition. It was the same old evil force questing for domination. As he arrived at a Rheinland outpost in the Omega 41 system he looked at the latest updates. Rheinland's expansion had been at least temporarily checked, apart from the Bretonian systems and they had dug in to defend their newly won territory.
He sighed as he realised the thing he had to do. He walked back to his ship, kicked the sleeping Kappelhoff out and flew away, ignoring the calls for clearance. He flew far into the no-mans zone into the patrol path of an Order squad who proceeded to destroy him until he replied.
"I've come to work for you"
-:-
You wanna revolution?
Mon May 16, 2005 4:41 am
20:
New London seemed like it was going to be hell. I had to re-learn the limits of my old ship, I had a now unconscious passenger, and I had to re-establish my link with Daedalus in Tau-37 through A.K. This was going to be a task without the persistence of the Gaian Starfliers and Startrackers on my back. The Bretonian Police became my best friend now, as they were expert at removing such pests.
I had one last stop on my way to Sheffield. And that was the equipment dealer run by Claude Gilbert. As another Order operative he was down with the latest info on the internals of The Order. I had joined the Kensington -> New London trade lane about 1/4 of the way from Kensington to New London. Cruising along at breakneck speed I started to work on A.K., trying to get the Nomad power supply working. Kenji had taken the hard part out, transforming the power outputs into workable levels. The only problem was heat. The coils and resistors in the transformer were overheating to critical levels within seconds, allowing only a partial boot of A.K.'s systems. I was gonna require some pretty strong cooling material. Well it would until I noticed why Kenji was having problems. A lazy PCB maker had accidentally taken too much off and broke a link, ending in a coil overload. A quick bit of eyeball engineering and I had some success, but New London was close, leaving me to quickly put the power supply away and Land on the planet.
Claude was his old self, cracking jokes at minority groups, being a **** as usual.
"Well, if it isn't the Viator himself. What’s crappening, my man?"
Claude's language was far from perfect.
"Not much, just need some info from the sequence. Heard they took out a Rheinland capital ship. You know anything?"
The Sequence had become our code name for The Order, and it seemed to fit quite nicely in the scheme of things.
"The Sequence had nothing to do with it, was deliberately attacked by Rheinland Schwartz Kommandos in Anubises, Death's Hand Mk Threes, the works!"
This was disturbing news, but Claude went on to tell me about how Kusari had fallen, and the Tau systems were under threat. That is what scared me. The rest of the houses were banding together to fight off Rheinland, even the Corsair Mafia, the Dragon Syndicates, the Outcast Pirates, heck, even the Xenos were pitching in. I needed to get to Daedalus. Fast. It had to be the key to all this. I would get there or die trying. I ran back to my ship and took off, ignoring the clearance warnings. I cut off a Xeno Freighter on the way, and engaged the cruise engines to get to Leeds. But there was Omicron Black 9 on Sheffield, and I had no idea what to do about him.
I connected the reconnected the Nomad power supply to A.K. and his boot up sequence began. The initial reports were good, and he brightened into life. The small AI interpreted my facial pattern. It beeped it recognition.
"A.K., I need you to interface with Daedalus, but I also need to send a message to Sheffield via long range. Can you do that?"
A.K. beeped a positive response, and waited for me to record the message.
"Omicron Black 9, Sorry, but a change of plans, if you want to help me, I'll be in Leeds for about 30 minutes after sending this message. If you want to help the cause of freedom, find me in Leeds. If not, I wish you good luck in your journey."
A.K. processed the message and sent it. After a few seconds it beeped its response to the other request, and registered a prompt on the ships neural net.
"Daedalus Input:>_"
"A.K.?"
The little droid beeped a response.
"Utilize the ship's onboard vocal synth as your own; this is going to require some complex commands, ok?"
A.K. whirred and beeped while strange noises came out of the speakers of the ZX-17. It sounded like a child's voice crossed with a dying old man's. It was creepy, to say the least. After a while, the voice began to become a regular tone, but was talking gibberish.
"A.K., integrate with the language database,"
A strange tone was emitted, and I took that as an 'Okay'. The voice began to form distinct words, and then formed perfect English, with a robotic synth voice.
"Ready for command:"
"Access Daedalus' main system."
"System accessed. Input?"
"Status"
A.K. beeped for a bit, even though he was integrated with the ship.
"Daedalus system at 90% efficiency. System in hibernation mode. Input?"
I pondered to idea of activating Daedalus in self defence and remove the threat of losing the station. But that would attract attention, attention I didn't want.
"Instruct Daedalus to phase shift into infra-red spectrum."
"Phase shift complete. Invisible to ultra-violet sensors. Input?"
"Lock down the station, allow no man in without the Daedalus codes."
"Lock down complete. Station in defence mode. Input?"
By the time I had finished with Daedalus, I was at the edge of Bretonian space, where a familiar sight caught my eye. Omicron Black 9 had received my message and had picked the one way out of Bretonian space that wasn't locked down: Tau-31.
"Nice of you to join me, Omicron Black 9. Please excuse the lack of my old ship and designation, blame the Rheinlanders for that. Coming with me?"
I punched in the codes for the Tau-31 gate. A Bretonian Crusader tried to prevent me from doing so.
"Unknown ships; identify yourselves."
"This is Viator Crimson Seven. I need to get to Tau-37, I have injured on their way to Freeport 10."
For some reason I thought I was exploiting my passenger's unconscious state, but that feeling left me rather quickly.
"Very well, proceed. Omicron Black 9, escort Viator Crimson 7 to Tau-37."
-:-
You wanna revolution?
New London seemed like it was going to be hell. I had to re-learn the limits of my old ship, I had a now unconscious passenger, and I had to re-establish my link with Daedalus in Tau-37 through A.K. This was going to be a task without the persistence of the Gaian Starfliers and Startrackers on my back. The Bretonian Police became my best friend now, as they were expert at removing such pests.
I had one last stop on my way to Sheffield. And that was the equipment dealer run by Claude Gilbert. As another Order operative he was down with the latest info on the internals of The Order. I had joined the Kensington -> New London trade lane about 1/4 of the way from Kensington to New London. Cruising along at breakneck speed I started to work on A.K., trying to get the Nomad power supply working. Kenji had taken the hard part out, transforming the power outputs into workable levels. The only problem was heat. The coils and resistors in the transformer were overheating to critical levels within seconds, allowing only a partial boot of A.K.'s systems. I was gonna require some pretty strong cooling material. Well it would until I noticed why Kenji was having problems. A lazy PCB maker had accidentally taken too much off and broke a link, ending in a coil overload. A quick bit of eyeball engineering and I had some success, but New London was close, leaving me to quickly put the power supply away and Land on the planet.
Claude was his old self, cracking jokes at minority groups, being a **** as usual.
"Well, if it isn't the Viator himself. What’s crappening, my man?"
Claude's language was far from perfect.
"Not much, just need some info from the sequence. Heard they took out a Rheinland capital ship. You know anything?"
The Sequence had become our code name for The Order, and it seemed to fit quite nicely in the scheme of things.
"The Sequence had nothing to do with it, was deliberately attacked by Rheinland Schwartz Kommandos in Anubises, Death's Hand Mk Threes, the works!"
This was disturbing news, but Claude went on to tell me about how Kusari had fallen, and the Tau systems were under threat. That is what scared me. The rest of the houses were banding together to fight off Rheinland, even the Corsair Mafia, the Dragon Syndicates, the Outcast Pirates, heck, even the Xenos were pitching in. I needed to get to Daedalus. Fast. It had to be the key to all this. I would get there or die trying. I ran back to my ship and took off, ignoring the clearance warnings. I cut off a Xeno Freighter on the way, and engaged the cruise engines to get to Leeds. But there was Omicron Black 9 on Sheffield, and I had no idea what to do about him.
I connected the reconnected the Nomad power supply to A.K. and his boot up sequence began. The initial reports were good, and he brightened into life. The small AI interpreted my facial pattern. It beeped it recognition.
"A.K., I need you to interface with Daedalus, but I also need to send a message to Sheffield via long range. Can you do that?"
A.K. beeped a positive response, and waited for me to record the message.
"Omicron Black 9, Sorry, but a change of plans, if you want to help me, I'll be in Leeds for about 30 minutes after sending this message. If you want to help the cause of freedom, find me in Leeds. If not, I wish you good luck in your journey."
A.K. processed the message and sent it. After a few seconds it beeped its response to the other request, and registered a prompt on the ships neural net.
"Daedalus Input:>_"
"A.K.?"
The little droid beeped a response.
"Utilize the ship's onboard vocal synth as your own; this is going to require some complex commands, ok?"
A.K. whirred and beeped while strange noises came out of the speakers of the ZX-17. It sounded like a child's voice crossed with a dying old man's. It was creepy, to say the least. After a while, the voice began to become a regular tone, but was talking gibberish.
"A.K., integrate with the language database,"
A strange tone was emitted, and I took that as an 'Okay'. The voice began to form distinct words, and then formed perfect English, with a robotic synth voice.
"Ready for command:"
"Access Daedalus' main system."
"System accessed. Input?"
"Status"
A.K. beeped for a bit, even though he was integrated with the ship.
"Daedalus system at 90% efficiency. System in hibernation mode. Input?"
I pondered to idea of activating Daedalus in self defence and remove the threat of losing the station. But that would attract attention, attention I didn't want.
"Instruct Daedalus to phase shift into infra-red spectrum."
"Phase shift complete. Invisible to ultra-violet sensors. Input?"
"Lock down the station, allow no man in without the Daedalus codes."
"Lock down complete. Station in defence mode. Input?"
By the time I had finished with Daedalus, I was at the edge of Bretonian space, where a familiar sight caught my eye. Omicron Black 9 had received my message and had picked the one way out of Bretonian space that wasn't locked down: Tau-31.
"Nice of you to join me, Omicron Black 9. Please excuse the lack of my old ship and designation, blame the Rheinlanders for that. Coming with me?"
I punched in the codes for the Tau-31 gate. A Bretonian Crusader tried to prevent me from doing so.
"Unknown ships; identify yourselves."
"This is Viator Crimson Seven. I need to get to Tau-37, I have injured on their way to Freeport 10."
For some reason I thought I was exploiting my passenger's unconscious state, but that feeling left me rather quickly.
"Very well, proceed. Omicron Black 9, escort Viator Crimson 7 to Tau-37."
-:-
You wanna revolution?
Mon May 16, 2005 11:23 am
Ok that fan fic kinda confused me some of the details are kinda edgy but all in all my normal lening in on the computer screen to red it fast 
A 8 man team cant defeat a science research center filled with who knows what that have already killed 500 people....
If your biggest gun doesnt work first then drop it and run like heck.....
A 8 man team cant defeat a science research center filled with who knows what that have already killed 500 people....
If your biggest gun doesnt work first then drop it and run like heck.....
Wed May 25, 2005 10:44 pm
21:
For the millionth time in his life, Waalbeck was breathing heavily and thanking nobody in particular that he was alive. Of course the Order operatives hadn't trusted him and proceeded to destroy him. He managed to kill two of the five and fled back to the base luring the others to annihilation. He had set his ship down about 5 minutes ago but he remained in the cockpit thinking wildly.
Because of this he failed to notice the two shady looking characters walk into the busy docking bays. The climbed onto the wings, one on each and cornered him in the cockpit. Waalbeck opened his eyes in shock. "I'm sorry if we startled you Colonel," said the blond haired one without emotion. "But you really must come with us." They were wearing green vests and yellow jumpsuits with a red stripe down the sides. They were Rheinland Federal agents. The shaven headed one put his foot onto the side of the cockpit rim and without any fuss buzzed Waalbeck with his taser.
Waalbeck opened his eyes. He was in a very richly decorated room. He opened his eyes in shock. There was a plate of some Kusari seafood but what surprised him the most is that there were actual potatoes and lettuce. Once common in antiquity, they were astonishly expensive delicacy now, rarer then tickets to visit Gaia planet side. He looked around; he was alone in a library filled with old books and neural displays. The meal was obviously for him so he set upon it ravenously.
As he did a door opened. He looked up with a lettuce leaf partway out of his mouth. It fluttered back down to the plate as Waalbeck realised the seniority of his guest. The Chancellor himself! He stood up to salute him but the Chancellor waved him down.
"Sir, it is an honour to meet you....uh many apologies sir I thought the meal was for me sir." The Chancellor smiled.
"It is my friend and please, address me as Lucius." Waalbeck slowly sat down. The Chancellor's face became grim.
"You may continue with your meal, but I will not beat around the bush, as it is. The underlings of the Sirius have started a resistance to our glorious crusade,"
A massive neural display floated down from the ceiling displaying the faces of several people. They all looked like they had seen a bit of action before. He narrowed his eyes as he glanced upon the generated image of Arania glaring down upon him. The Chancellor continued.
"These are the most dangerous, a list comprised by our operatives in the FFS of the ringleaders. As for the strength of the FFS we are not totally sure. We have got several figures but we will be able to hold on to Kusari at least." Waalbeck finished the meal and pushed away the plate.
"So forgive me for guessing at your great plans Sir, uh, Lucius, but I believe we are to dig in and defend?" The Chancellor nodded slightly.
Then he opened his draws and pulled out a rank plate.
"This is for you Gunter; you are now the Commander of forces within Kusari to Tau-29." Waalbeck sat back surprised.
"The former commander was killed on Kusari....beheaded I believe but you are only facing the Bretonian Navy and a bunch of rag-tag guerrillas. You have the Schwarz Kommando and most of the Northern fleet now awaiting your command." Waalbeck accepted the plates and slid them onto his shoulders. He removed the Colonel plates and placed them on the table. The Chancellor picked them up and gazed at them rather strange.
"For another deserving Major perhaps? Dismissed."
Waalbeck saluted and walked out towards the doors. The Chancellor called out. Waalbeck turned.
"Gunter? Don't try and defect again. If not for my intervention your bloated carcass would be turning slowly in the vacuum right now..." He left through a side door leaving Waalbeck stunned.
Three days later he sat chatting to the Admiral of the Battleship Höllentier which was floating quietly with a flotilla of Valkryes and cruisers at the ruins of Nago station. His co-commander in the Tau 23 system had intercepted a very coded and interesting message, untraceable apparently.
He excused himself and strode up to the communications centre. The officer in charge took him away to a small proofed room where a single frightened ensign sat. There was a small neural display and a message
To all Fighters within Sirius space:
Solar attack on Sirius will commence shortly
Evacuate immediatly
ETA - 2:59:54
An icy ball materialized in his stomach. He read it several times over again. Without a word he left for the resident Admiral's cabin. He ignored the calls from the ensign and officer. He slammed open the door and got on the private line to the Chancellor.
After he declared an emergency the Chancellor appeared on screen looking very sleepy. "Gunter? Vhat is ze meaning of zis?" Waalbeck swallowed hard. The Chancellor was at odds. Half of the Sirius seemed to be heading to the extreme systems and cruise speeding it as far away as possible as they could. The other half had stayed put obviously shot with indecision and disbelief.
Waalbeck checked his solar watch; 2:37:28 and counting. The Chancellor slammed his fist on his desk in fury. He looked up, his close cropped iron grey hair all askew. He seemed to struggle to get the words out.
"Ztate of emergency! You are now ze commander of ze Northern Fleet! All commanders are giving the free will act passed by the Reichstag in 805. Do with the Northern fleet what you will." Waalbeck was surprised.
“Contact ze Order! Maybe ze vill know something about zis alien attack." The comm-link faded and it would not come online again. Waalbeck thought hurriedly. How did he know it was an alien attack? Was it? He knew Arania had been apparently sighted in the North western systems and contacted his cohort in Tau-23. He had got the message too and handed control over to Waalbeck.
"Full fleet jump to Tau-37, I don't care how we get there just go!" he yelled at the surprised crew.
Over the next few hours the entire Rheinland Northern Fleet gradually built up presence in the Tau-37 system, completely surrounding Freeport 10. Technicians on the Battleship Höllentier beamed a message from Waalbeck to all channels on Freeport 10 and all ships in the area.
"Arania? I know you're here somewhere… I come in peace. Help me and my fleet for the love of decency. You can't leave us here to be destroyed. I'm sorry, spare my fleet. This equals us all. This whole goddamned system is filling up with refugees. Do with them what you want but at least tell us how we can save ourselves and them."
The system gradually filled up with every kind of ship in the Sirius. As well as the Rheinland Northern Fleet there were also Bretonian personnel and even a rogue cruiser. Hundreds of private crafts and merchants made up the rest of the population. Military units all over the Sirius were deserting their posts to get as far away as possible from Sirius.
Many had overstocked their ships with months of supplies flying west of Tau-37 into open space. The Battleship Höllentier had emptied its holds of military craft and was now full of private craft and families were given berth in the cabins deep inside the Höllentier. Ships of all kind flocked to the Höllentier. It was almost like a beacon. There was something comforting in its massive size and protection.
Waalbeck refused sleep, waiting for Arania's reply through 3 crew shift changes.
He stood at the very front of the bridge gazing out with that penetrating stare around the Tau-37 and the Freeport; whose Bio-domes were full of refugees...
One evil thought lay at the back of Waalbeck's mind, taunting him.
They had escaped 800 years ago from a conflict that had torn their world and system apart and settled down again only to throw a massive conflict again on the innocent masses. Was this a punishment for their sins? Waalbeck wasn't a religious man at all but did hold belief that acts did not go unpunished. He looked slowly around at the huddled masses on his ship, many of them sleeping on classified documents and battle plans.
Would man ever learn?
-:-
You wanna revolution?
For the millionth time in his life, Waalbeck was breathing heavily and thanking nobody in particular that he was alive. Of course the Order operatives hadn't trusted him and proceeded to destroy him. He managed to kill two of the five and fled back to the base luring the others to annihilation. He had set his ship down about 5 minutes ago but he remained in the cockpit thinking wildly.
Because of this he failed to notice the two shady looking characters walk into the busy docking bays. The climbed onto the wings, one on each and cornered him in the cockpit. Waalbeck opened his eyes in shock. "I'm sorry if we startled you Colonel," said the blond haired one without emotion. "But you really must come with us." They were wearing green vests and yellow jumpsuits with a red stripe down the sides. They were Rheinland Federal agents. The shaven headed one put his foot onto the side of the cockpit rim and without any fuss buzzed Waalbeck with his taser.
Waalbeck opened his eyes. He was in a very richly decorated room. He opened his eyes in shock. There was a plate of some Kusari seafood but what surprised him the most is that there were actual potatoes and lettuce. Once common in antiquity, they were astonishly expensive delicacy now, rarer then tickets to visit Gaia planet side. He looked around; he was alone in a library filled with old books and neural displays. The meal was obviously for him so he set upon it ravenously.
As he did a door opened. He looked up with a lettuce leaf partway out of his mouth. It fluttered back down to the plate as Waalbeck realised the seniority of his guest. The Chancellor himself! He stood up to salute him but the Chancellor waved him down.
"Sir, it is an honour to meet you....uh many apologies sir I thought the meal was for me sir." The Chancellor smiled.
"It is my friend and please, address me as Lucius." Waalbeck slowly sat down. The Chancellor's face became grim.
"You may continue with your meal, but I will not beat around the bush, as it is. The underlings of the Sirius have started a resistance to our glorious crusade,"
A massive neural display floated down from the ceiling displaying the faces of several people. They all looked like they had seen a bit of action before. He narrowed his eyes as he glanced upon the generated image of Arania glaring down upon him. The Chancellor continued.
"These are the most dangerous, a list comprised by our operatives in the FFS of the ringleaders. As for the strength of the FFS we are not totally sure. We have got several figures but we will be able to hold on to Kusari at least." Waalbeck finished the meal and pushed away the plate.
"So forgive me for guessing at your great plans Sir, uh, Lucius, but I believe we are to dig in and defend?" The Chancellor nodded slightly.
Then he opened his draws and pulled out a rank plate.
"This is for you Gunter; you are now the Commander of forces within Kusari to Tau-29." Waalbeck sat back surprised.
"The former commander was killed on Kusari....beheaded I believe but you are only facing the Bretonian Navy and a bunch of rag-tag guerrillas. You have the Schwarz Kommando and most of the Northern fleet now awaiting your command." Waalbeck accepted the plates and slid them onto his shoulders. He removed the Colonel plates and placed them on the table. The Chancellor picked them up and gazed at them rather strange.
"For another deserving Major perhaps? Dismissed."
Waalbeck saluted and walked out towards the doors. The Chancellor called out. Waalbeck turned.
"Gunter? Don't try and defect again. If not for my intervention your bloated carcass would be turning slowly in the vacuum right now..." He left through a side door leaving Waalbeck stunned.
Three days later he sat chatting to the Admiral of the Battleship Höllentier which was floating quietly with a flotilla of Valkryes and cruisers at the ruins of Nago station. His co-commander in the Tau 23 system had intercepted a very coded and interesting message, untraceable apparently.
He excused himself and strode up to the communications centre. The officer in charge took him away to a small proofed room where a single frightened ensign sat. There was a small neural display and a message
To all Fighters within Sirius space:
Solar attack on Sirius will commence shortly
Evacuate immediatly
ETA - 2:59:54
An icy ball materialized in his stomach. He read it several times over again. Without a word he left for the resident Admiral's cabin. He ignored the calls from the ensign and officer. He slammed open the door and got on the private line to the Chancellor.
After he declared an emergency the Chancellor appeared on screen looking very sleepy. "Gunter? Vhat is ze meaning of zis?" Waalbeck swallowed hard. The Chancellor was at odds. Half of the Sirius seemed to be heading to the extreme systems and cruise speeding it as far away as possible as they could. The other half had stayed put obviously shot with indecision and disbelief.
Waalbeck checked his solar watch; 2:37:28 and counting. The Chancellor slammed his fist on his desk in fury. He looked up, his close cropped iron grey hair all askew. He seemed to struggle to get the words out.
"Ztate of emergency! You are now ze commander of ze Northern Fleet! All commanders are giving the free will act passed by the Reichstag in 805. Do with the Northern fleet what you will." Waalbeck was surprised.
“Contact ze Order! Maybe ze vill know something about zis alien attack." The comm-link faded and it would not come online again. Waalbeck thought hurriedly. How did he know it was an alien attack? Was it? He knew Arania had been apparently sighted in the North western systems and contacted his cohort in Tau-23. He had got the message too and handed control over to Waalbeck.
"Full fleet jump to Tau-37, I don't care how we get there just go!" he yelled at the surprised crew.
Over the next few hours the entire Rheinland Northern Fleet gradually built up presence in the Tau-37 system, completely surrounding Freeport 10. Technicians on the Battleship Höllentier beamed a message from Waalbeck to all channels on Freeport 10 and all ships in the area.
"Arania? I know you're here somewhere… I come in peace. Help me and my fleet for the love of decency. You can't leave us here to be destroyed. I'm sorry, spare my fleet. This equals us all. This whole goddamned system is filling up with refugees. Do with them what you want but at least tell us how we can save ourselves and them."
The system gradually filled up with every kind of ship in the Sirius. As well as the Rheinland Northern Fleet there were also Bretonian personnel and even a rogue cruiser. Hundreds of private crafts and merchants made up the rest of the population. Military units all over the Sirius were deserting their posts to get as far away as possible from Sirius.
Many had overstocked their ships with months of supplies flying west of Tau-37 into open space. The Battleship Höllentier had emptied its holds of military craft and was now full of private craft and families were given berth in the cabins deep inside the Höllentier. Ships of all kind flocked to the Höllentier. It was almost like a beacon. There was something comforting in its massive size and protection.
Waalbeck refused sleep, waiting for Arania's reply through 3 crew shift changes.
He stood at the very front of the bridge gazing out with that penetrating stare around the Tau-37 and the Freeport; whose Bio-domes were full of refugees...
One evil thought lay at the back of Waalbeck's mind, taunting him.
They had escaped 800 years ago from a conflict that had torn their world and system apart and settled down again only to throw a massive conflict again on the innocent masses. Was this a punishment for their sins? Waalbeck wasn't a religious man at all but did hold belief that acts did not go unpunished. He looked slowly around at the huddled masses on his ship, many of them sleeping on classified documents and battle plans.
Would man ever learn?
-:-
You wanna revolution?
Sun May 29, 2005 2:34 am
22:
Viator
There are times where I feel that Fate doesn't care much for me. Then there is the time where a solution is dropped on top of me, literally. From out of nowhere as I proceeded to my old station on the far side of the system, a strange fighter fell on top of me. Out of nowhere, just BAM!
"Proximity Warning. Alter course."
"I already know that, A.K.!"
Now if it were a standard fighter from Sirius, I'd be surprised. But since it had markings similar to the ruins on Toledo, I assumed that it was either Nomad or Dom'Kavash in origin. But the pilot was far from alien. The pilot's 'sidekick' seemed to be on fire, but who was I to talk, I had a sentient droid as a navigator, and an unconscious Cambridge research assistant in the seat behind me, and I had lost my escort in the Tau-23 system. This guy's alien ship and burning avian were nothing really out of the ordinary. A message came over the comm system.
"Viator, I need your help"
This left me a bit stunned. Obviously I had a bigger role in this than I thought.
"If you want my help, follow me. Freeport 10 isn't secure enough."
I turned for my station and hit the cruise engines. Unlike the Reflex, these charged in seconds, propelling toward my station in lightning speed. Nothing could catch me in this thing I thought. How wrong I was. Within seconds, my new friend had caught up to me.
It didn't take long to reach my station, even though it wasn't visible. Here is where A.K. worked his magic.
"A.K., de-cloak the station and activate defence systems. Activate Daedalus and power up the turrets, fire on anything from Rheinland. Unlock Docking port 1, and prepare the environmental systems for human life."
After a moment, my station glittered into view. Very few knew what happened to the old Ithaca station, most thought it was still in the Badlands of New York. But I had lovingly restored it here in Tau-37, and it was a good home. I flew into the open docking port, and sent a message to the pilot outside.
"As I said, Freeport 10 isn't secure like this place."
When I got inside, alarms were wailing all over the place, which questioned the security. I placed the station in cloak mode and shut down defences. Locking down the station seemed the best thing to do.
Arania
There were very few times when Arania was surprised by anything, the discovery of his dæmon was one, this was another.
The station was in the middle of an occupied system, surrounded by millions of people passing and going, and no-one had noticed it, even the Dom'Kavash sensors on his ship hadn’t registered the station until it decloaked.
Walking around the large hangar bay of the station, he marvelled in wonder what the station was....
"Arania" spoke Viator "You have some explaining to do"
"Ok" Arania replied, leaning up against the wing of his fighter "how do I put this...? I’m, um, not from here"
Before Viator could reply, Arania had launched into the explanation:
"My name is Commander James Carson; I was the leader of a Coalition scouting party to Sirius 25 years ago. We arrived the same day that the order banished the Nomads from Sirius"
He took a breath and continued:
"Most of the crew didn’t survive the trip, and only my navigator and I managed to hold on until we reached civilisation. Not Human civilisation either. We landed on a nomad Sleeper ship. They attacked my navigator and took me prisoner, intending to use me as a host. That is, until another group of nomads attacked us. These nomads were a breakaway to the Dom'Kavash. They believed that there were other ways to bring peace than to annihilate us."
He rubbed the scar on the back of his neck and continued.
"I met Proteus there, and I offered to protect him if he gave me the full and uninhibited knowledge of Sirius. He agreed, and now resides clinging top my spine..."
Arania turned, showing the slight bulge in his flight suit.
"I joined the Order shortly after that, claiming myself to be a Capital Ship engineer. I helped them design the Seckmet."
"Nothing much happened after that, until recently, everybody seems to have gone nuts. Recently I discovered that the Dom'Kavash have returned. They never left, in fact. The Nomads are the Dom'Kavash"
Letting this sink in, he continued.
"In a manner of speaking, I mean. The Nomads are a genetic creation of the Dom'Kavash designed to propagate their species. You see, when a Dom'Kavash dies, he vanishes, without a trace. That’s why we couldn’t work out why they vanished. They were at war, and they killed almost everyone"
"Leaving the Nomads to 'repair' Sirius during their absence, the Dom'Kavash left, in a massive 'Exodus' many millions of years ago."
"Now, to put this in perspective, imagine that you were a massively advanced species, and you left 'caretakers' to look after your homes. Then a flimsy race comes along and, against all odds, wipes them out. You would be slightly put out, wouldn’t you?"
"So, they decided to use our own desires against us. Using a massive 'spray can' if you will, the Dom'Kavash 'sprayed' the entire population of Sirius with a potent nero-aplification agent that removed the conscious mind and made the being operate in a state of sentient instinct"
"Now, naturally the instinct of every human is to become the 'one on top' so all the military organisations of Sirius launched a massive offensive against each other, the effects seen only recently"
"The Order attack on Rheinland was nomad doing, in order to lure out the leader of the Nomad resistance, Proteus. And it made the people of Sirius scatter in disarray"
"Then, once the population was significantly disoriented, the Dom'Kavash would come in and finish us off"
"Why didn’t they just attack us outright?" Viator asked
"Because the Dom'Kavash are a proud people, who like to make their point well made. If they attacked us outright, they wouldn’t have made any point. If they made us fight against each other, they prove that we are unfit to reside here."
"And they have no care for the sanctity of creation either. If it was to prove a point, they would blast the entire known universe into oblivion; just to prove a point. The only weakness of the Dom'Kavash is their arrogance. They believe that they are the greatest living being, we can use that against them. Over their life, once they believed there technology to be advanced enough, they stopped trying to improve it. As it is, The Coalition, my people, have managed to develop beyond their technological level"
"But, ever though they are more advanced, their weakness is size, the coalition is far too small to openly attack the Dom'Kavash. My plan is that we attack the Dom'Kavash home world, with everything we have. Forcing them to realise we are better, and, by their own logic, surrendering Sirius over to us. Their own laws state: 'If thy own flesh, and thy own blood is defeated in combat, thy must surrender, and give the victor what is rightfully his.’ They follow that law like a commandment"
"So, where is the Dom'Kavash home world?" Viator asked
"Um, that’s the only problem" Arania replied "I don’t know"
"Then why are you telling me this?" Viator asked after Arania’s spiel.
"You are the last descendant of my family in the Alliance. Long ago, our family split, one half to the Coalition, one half to the Alliance. You are the last descendant of that family in the alliance, and I am the last in the Coalition"
"I searched you out, you I knew I could trust. I need you to help me find the Dom'Kavash home world"
-:-
You wanna revolution?
Viator
There are times where I feel that Fate doesn't care much for me. Then there is the time where a solution is dropped on top of me, literally. From out of nowhere as I proceeded to my old station on the far side of the system, a strange fighter fell on top of me. Out of nowhere, just BAM!
"Proximity Warning. Alter course."
"I already know that, A.K.!"
Now if it were a standard fighter from Sirius, I'd be surprised. But since it had markings similar to the ruins on Toledo, I assumed that it was either Nomad or Dom'Kavash in origin. But the pilot was far from alien. The pilot's 'sidekick' seemed to be on fire, but who was I to talk, I had a sentient droid as a navigator, and an unconscious Cambridge research assistant in the seat behind me, and I had lost my escort in the Tau-23 system. This guy's alien ship and burning avian were nothing really out of the ordinary. A message came over the comm system.
"Viator, I need your help"
This left me a bit stunned. Obviously I had a bigger role in this than I thought.
"If you want my help, follow me. Freeport 10 isn't secure enough."
I turned for my station and hit the cruise engines. Unlike the Reflex, these charged in seconds, propelling toward my station in lightning speed. Nothing could catch me in this thing I thought. How wrong I was. Within seconds, my new friend had caught up to me.
It didn't take long to reach my station, even though it wasn't visible. Here is where A.K. worked his magic.
"A.K., de-cloak the station and activate defence systems. Activate Daedalus and power up the turrets, fire on anything from Rheinland. Unlock Docking port 1, and prepare the environmental systems for human life."
After a moment, my station glittered into view. Very few knew what happened to the old Ithaca station, most thought it was still in the Badlands of New York. But I had lovingly restored it here in Tau-37, and it was a good home. I flew into the open docking port, and sent a message to the pilot outside.
"As I said, Freeport 10 isn't secure like this place."
When I got inside, alarms were wailing all over the place, which questioned the security. I placed the station in cloak mode and shut down defences. Locking down the station seemed the best thing to do.
Arania
There were very few times when Arania was surprised by anything, the discovery of his dæmon was one, this was another.
The station was in the middle of an occupied system, surrounded by millions of people passing and going, and no-one had noticed it, even the Dom'Kavash sensors on his ship hadn’t registered the station until it decloaked.
Walking around the large hangar bay of the station, he marvelled in wonder what the station was....
"Arania" spoke Viator "You have some explaining to do"
"Ok" Arania replied, leaning up against the wing of his fighter "how do I put this...? I’m, um, not from here"
Before Viator could reply, Arania had launched into the explanation:
"My name is Commander James Carson; I was the leader of a Coalition scouting party to Sirius 25 years ago. We arrived the same day that the order banished the Nomads from Sirius"
He took a breath and continued:
"Most of the crew didn’t survive the trip, and only my navigator and I managed to hold on until we reached civilisation. Not Human civilisation either. We landed on a nomad Sleeper ship. They attacked my navigator and took me prisoner, intending to use me as a host. That is, until another group of nomads attacked us. These nomads were a breakaway to the Dom'Kavash. They believed that there were other ways to bring peace than to annihilate us."
He rubbed the scar on the back of his neck and continued.
"I met Proteus there, and I offered to protect him if he gave me the full and uninhibited knowledge of Sirius. He agreed, and now resides clinging top my spine..."
Arania turned, showing the slight bulge in his flight suit.
"I joined the Order shortly after that, claiming myself to be a Capital Ship engineer. I helped them design the Seckmet."
"Nothing much happened after that, until recently, everybody seems to have gone nuts. Recently I discovered that the Dom'Kavash have returned. They never left, in fact. The Nomads are the Dom'Kavash"
Letting this sink in, he continued.
"In a manner of speaking, I mean. The Nomads are a genetic creation of the Dom'Kavash designed to propagate their species. You see, when a Dom'Kavash dies, he vanishes, without a trace. That’s why we couldn’t work out why they vanished. They were at war, and they killed almost everyone"
"Leaving the Nomads to 'repair' Sirius during their absence, the Dom'Kavash left, in a massive 'Exodus' many millions of years ago."
"Now, to put this in perspective, imagine that you were a massively advanced species, and you left 'caretakers' to look after your homes. Then a flimsy race comes along and, against all odds, wipes them out. You would be slightly put out, wouldn’t you?"
"So, they decided to use our own desires against us. Using a massive 'spray can' if you will, the Dom'Kavash 'sprayed' the entire population of Sirius with a potent nero-aplification agent that removed the conscious mind and made the being operate in a state of sentient instinct"
"Now, naturally the instinct of every human is to become the 'one on top' so all the military organisations of Sirius launched a massive offensive against each other, the effects seen only recently"
"The Order attack on Rheinland was nomad doing, in order to lure out the leader of the Nomad resistance, Proteus. And it made the people of Sirius scatter in disarray"
"Then, once the population was significantly disoriented, the Dom'Kavash would come in and finish us off"
"Why didn’t they just attack us outright?" Viator asked
"Because the Dom'Kavash are a proud people, who like to make their point well made. If they attacked us outright, they wouldn’t have made any point. If they made us fight against each other, they prove that we are unfit to reside here."
"And they have no care for the sanctity of creation either. If it was to prove a point, they would blast the entire known universe into oblivion; just to prove a point. The only weakness of the Dom'Kavash is their arrogance. They believe that they are the greatest living being, we can use that against them. Over their life, once they believed there technology to be advanced enough, they stopped trying to improve it. As it is, The Coalition, my people, have managed to develop beyond their technological level"
"But, ever though they are more advanced, their weakness is size, the coalition is far too small to openly attack the Dom'Kavash. My plan is that we attack the Dom'Kavash home world, with everything we have. Forcing them to realise we are better, and, by their own logic, surrendering Sirius over to us. Their own laws state: 'If thy own flesh, and thy own blood is defeated in combat, thy must surrender, and give the victor what is rightfully his.’ They follow that law like a commandment"
"So, where is the Dom'Kavash home world?" Viator asked
"Um, that’s the only problem" Arania replied "I don’t know"
"Then why are you telling me this?" Viator asked after Arania’s spiel.
"You are the last descendant of my family in the Alliance. Long ago, our family split, one half to the Coalition, one half to the Alliance. You are the last descendant of that family in the alliance, and I am the last in the Coalition"
"I searched you out, you I knew I could trust. I need you to help me find the Dom'Kavash home world"
-:-
You wanna revolution?
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