Hey Guys! I'm not dead for those of you wondering where I've been. I'm about half-way through my next chapter. I had alot of exams for school, then I had to be gone for awhile for my break. Expect a new chapter Friday or Saturday.
Edited by - MercZ on 12/29/2005 10:54:48 PM
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The War in the Omicrons *Ch 20 5/8/07 *Ch 21 7/26/07
Read, add and comment on excellent written stories by fans, set within the Freelancer universe
Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:31 pm
I'm late again 
Ch. 14
The ghostly Hessian proceeds towards Alvaro, with one of the odd tentacles raised in an attack position.
“Give up foolish creature!” said the creature, “Give up and you will join your friends quicker!”
Alvaro struggled backwards towards the wall, and froze and the glare of the Hessians’ glowing eyes. He watched as one of the tentacles proceeded towards him, slowly turning into a dagger-like shape. Alvaro is stricken with fear and unable to move.
“It’s wise that you see your place, weak being!” said the Hessian, “At least you are wiser than your companions!”
Alvaro hears a chuckle, and turns to the left to see Alonso.
“You really are going to give up that easily, Alvaro! That isn’t the kid who escaped from a Bounty Hunter prison I’m hearing!”
Alonso reaches into his pocket and pulls out a grenade. He struggles up and goes towards Alvaro.
“Sorry about this kid, but someone’s gotta get out alive,” said Alonso.
He reaches over to pat Alvaro on his shoulder, and without warning pushes him through the bridge’s door.
“Fight for future Corsairs! Don’t give up on the hope of our ancestors!”
The door closes, and Alvaro stands there, realizing that he is safe. He runs towards the door, but is stopped by the sound of an explosion.
“Warning! Hull Breach detected in the main bridge! Command is being shifted towards the secondary bridge!”
Alvaro takes a last look towards the door, and rushes down back the hall towards the rail center. He steps into a lone rail car and enters the command to be taken back to the hangar bay.
Damn… I still don’t know what my next course of action should be! Poor Alonso… But that abomination disturbs me… It wasn’t human….”
Alvaro sits down on the rail car, readying his weapons. He suddenly hears a deafening sound, and is rocked out of his chair onto the ground of the rail car. He struggles upwards and shakes his head. He speeds up the rail car and patches into the com-link of his helmet.
That explosion must have been from a laser beam… Either from one of our planetary defense cannons or from the Hispania…
“This is Alvaro to Hispania, do you read”
Alvaro hears some silence, but some chatter comes on. It was the Elder Alvaro saw only hours before.
“Alvaro? Wait… You survived? We thought the attack crew had perished! What happened?
“I don’t know… The attack squad proceeded into the bridge, and met their demise by the supreme commander. But something was odd about him… He seemed to not be human…”
”That’s disturbing news… You’ll have to excuse the blast. We assumed you guys were dead, as we weren’t picking up any communication nor were we getting any communication. You may want to get out quick though- we hit the ship’s engines and it may explode soon!”
“Will do!” said Alvaro.
He looks ahead and sees that the hangar bay door is closing and prepares himself for a fight. He hears a deafening scream behind him, and sees a ghost-like being rapidly approaching him.
“You will not escape!” yelled the ghost, “You will surrender yourself to me and serve the greater good!”
Alvaro pulls out his pulse-rifle and begins unloading at the ghost. His shots pass through it, and the ghost begins laughing.
“You’re just like that idiot who thought he could destroy me with that primitive weapon. He lost his life, thinking he destroyed me. He destroyed my host body, but I’m still here! Prepare yourself for a fate far worse than death!”
The ghost dives at Alvaro, letting out a deafening scream. Alvaro dodges out of the way, just as the ghost attempted to enter his body. Alvaro throws a grenade at the ghost, but it passes right through it. The ghost quickly dashes at Alvaro, grasping his neck with one of its tentacles.
“Foolish attempt, weak creature! Surrender yourself!” said the ghost.
“Ughh,” grunted Alvaro, “What are you… What the hell do you want?”
The ghost laughs and closes in on Alvaro.
“I should tell you what I am… It would be foolish for my new host to not know who he is serving. Very well. I was a being living in a real body, eons before your primitive race awoke. We were created by another race to fight for them and to defend their territories, which were in the general area where your people are. They were in constant warfare with another group of beings, whose artifacts are widespread across this galaxy. We often fought them and their guardians, but after awhile, our masters and the other group of people made peace with one another. Our masters then began to rapidly advance in their society. Many powerful weapons and grand buildings were built on their capital planet, which was the very same we are fighting over. Overtime, my people realized their true potential and their superiority of our so called “masters”. We rebelled, and so started the war. Eventually, we laid waste to many of their settlements and made our way to the capital planet. We began bombarding it, but our masters fired one of their most powerful weapons, destroying many of our ships, and creating a rift to a distant universe, where our entire race was sucked in to. Our masters were also sucked into another rift, leaving their lost legacy to be taken over by the other group of beings in the galaxy. I was sent through another rift created recently, from what I can’t say. I’m here to bring back my race…You’ve heard my story now…”
“But what do you want from us? Why are you doing this to us?” cried Alvaro.
“I’ll make this quick, listen as I will not repeat! I emerged from the rift as the only hope for my race. The only way I could make a rift large enough to bring my race back to our lost home was to use the very same weapon that damned us to our imprisonment. I was able to find the old ruins of the weapon deep underground on a barren area of your planet. But your people were in the way, and there was no way I could land on your planet undetected- I may be strong, but not immortal mind you! I journeyed across your systems for years, learning your ways. Eventually I learned of the Red Hessians, who were your enemies. I bribed them with fake credits, which they thought was real. I took control of their leader, and lead a grand assault on your home planet. I was hoping to drop down to the surface in the confusion, and activate the rift to bring my people across, and reclaim the galaxy which is rightfully ours!”
Alvaro smirks and reaches down to his belt and pushes some buttons. He inputs a code, and begins struggling under the alien.
Maybe if I do this… It’ll give me sometime to escape…
The alien begins closing in on Alvaro, laughing as it does so. The alien hears a sound, and turns to see an object glowing red, and showing the numbers 00:10”
“You wouldn’t dare!” yelled the alien, “You’ll get sucked out as well”
00:05
“Maybe you will,” stated Alvaro, “But I won’t”
00:00
Alvaro’s view is engulfed with flames, and he hits some commands into his wrist computer. He activates his rocket pack and flies over to the Hangar Bay door, turning back to see the alien getting sucked out into space. He lands safely onto the hangar bay door and passes through. He turns to a command console on the wall and locks the door. He dashes into the hangar bay, and sees many ships leaving the hangar bay, and many more lying on the deck destroyed. He spots a lone dromedary sitting on the deck, and rushes towards it.
I have to get to that ship… I don’t think the Hessians will be too happy with sharing space with a Corsair.
Alvaro rushes to the ship and jumps onto the door and sticks his hacking tool into its slot. The door slides open and Alvaro slips in. He straps himself into the command chair and begins to turn on the ships.
Ok… Engines are good, life-support is functional, and weapons are on-line…
Suddenly, some shots splash against the cockpit, filling it with a red glow. Alvaro peers through the shot, and sees the outline of people.
Dang it! These people are stubborn. Time to show them whose boss!
Alvaro puts on the targeting helmet and locks onto the Hessians. Just as he is about to fire, his vision is blurred with a bright blue flash, followed by a loud explosion. His vision gradually returns, and sees the hull tearing apart at its seams. Slowly, the darkness of space appears, illuminated by the war outside. He initiates the engines and blasts out of the ship, just as it exploded. His cockpit is engulfed in a blazing fire, heating up the ship. He turns on the heat shields, preventing the ship from heating up any further. Alvaro goes to the console and sets a target to the Hispania, and proceeds to marking his ship as a Corsair, entering the password and hailing the Hispania as he neared it.
“Hispania! This is Flight Lieutenant Alvaro requesting landing clearance, over”
Alvaro hears a silence, and hears the voice of the Elder.
“Alvaro! You made it out! I’ve given you clearance to land, and I will meet you on the landing deck!”
The nav-computer comes on afterwards.
“Autopilot initiated! Dock 1A of the spaceship Hispania selected as landing bay. Is this ok!”
“Yes damn it, go!” yelled Alvaro. He slams his hand on the yes icon, and makes his way to the back of the ship where the bay door is located. He flips on the light switch, illuminating the room. He sees the numerous weapons and supplies around the room.
“Heh, at least some good came out of this!”
He proceeds to the bay door’s view window, seeing that his ship has safely passed through the bay door. He feels the ship go down, and feels the ship touchdown. He takes a deep breath, and opens the door, met by Corsairs and the Elder.
“You guys can go in my ship; I brought back a gift from the Red Hessians themselves!” said Alvaro.
He proceeds out to meet the Elder, who extends his hand.
“I’m sorry Alvaro,” he sighed, “I would have never saw that the leader of the Hessians had been possessed by an alien. But their deaths were not in vain! The Hessians are scrambled, and the blast from the Kitzingen took down two battleships with her. But…”
The Elder is cut off by a yelling corsair, who is waving a holo-pad in his hand.
“Elder Ferdinand! Look at this! A larger ship has survived the explosion of the Kitzingen! It’s heading right for the planet’s surface. We are predicting that the ship will land in the Atlas Desert. Should we shoot it down or let the fools die?
Alvaro glares at the holo-pad, and a thought blares into his head.
I was able to find the old ruins of the weapon deep underground on a barren area of your planet. But your people were in the way, and there was no way I could land on your planet undetected…
Alvaro freezes and realizes what is happening.
Damn... This is what it wanted all this time! He can land on the planet during the confusion of the war and open the rift…
“Alvaro!?”, yelled the Elder, “What’s wrong?”
Alvaro shakes his head, and realizes what he must do.
“I’ll make this short- The alien has the intention of unleashing an old weapon, which is buried on the planet’s surface. I fear that the alien may be held up on that ship, taking advantage of the confusion!”
The Elder gives a puzzled look to Alvaro, wondering what he is saying.
Elder, if you may, bring my ship to the landing bay and repair the heat shields. I fear that something isn’t right on that ship, and I must follow it! There may be something brewing here that threatens our entire race, if not the entire human race!”
The Elder stares hard at Alvaro, and no longer sees a young corsair, not even a corsair, but the face of the ancestors back on Earth in the ancient texts.
“Sure Alvaro”, said the Elder, “I’m afraid we can’t send anyone with you though, the Hessians may be considerately weaker, but they are not defeated!”
Alvaro nods to the Elder and rushes into the supply room, rearming his weapons and loading up on first-aid. The Elder watches him as he boards his ship and leaves the Hispania, blasting towards the planet’s surface.
Do what you must kid… Our fate lies on your shoulders now...
End Ch. 14
Edited by - MercZ on 6/5/2006 10:23:49 PM
Ch. 14
The ghostly Hessian proceeds towards Alvaro, with one of the odd tentacles raised in an attack position.
“Give up foolish creature!” said the creature, “Give up and you will join your friends quicker!”
Alvaro struggled backwards towards the wall, and froze and the glare of the Hessians’ glowing eyes. He watched as one of the tentacles proceeded towards him, slowly turning into a dagger-like shape. Alvaro is stricken with fear and unable to move.
“It’s wise that you see your place, weak being!” said the Hessian, “At least you are wiser than your companions!”
Alvaro hears a chuckle, and turns to the left to see Alonso.
“You really are going to give up that easily, Alvaro! That isn’t the kid who escaped from a Bounty Hunter prison I’m hearing!”
Alonso reaches into his pocket and pulls out a grenade. He struggles up and goes towards Alvaro.
“Sorry about this kid, but someone’s gotta get out alive,” said Alonso.
He reaches over to pat Alvaro on his shoulder, and without warning pushes him through the bridge’s door.
“Fight for future Corsairs! Don’t give up on the hope of our ancestors!”
The door closes, and Alvaro stands there, realizing that he is safe. He runs towards the door, but is stopped by the sound of an explosion.
“Warning! Hull Breach detected in the main bridge! Command is being shifted towards the secondary bridge!”
Alvaro takes a last look towards the door, and rushes down back the hall towards the rail center. He steps into a lone rail car and enters the command to be taken back to the hangar bay.
Damn… I still don’t know what my next course of action should be! Poor Alonso… But that abomination disturbs me… It wasn’t human….”
Alvaro sits down on the rail car, readying his weapons. He suddenly hears a deafening sound, and is rocked out of his chair onto the ground of the rail car. He struggles upwards and shakes his head. He speeds up the rail car and patches into the com-link of his helmet.
That explosion must have been from a laser beam… Either from one of our planetary defense cannons or from the Hispania…
“This is Alvaro to Hispania, do you read”
Alvaro hears some silence, but some chatter comes on. It was the Elder Alvaro saw only hours before.
“Alvaro? Wait… You survived? We thought the attack crew had perished! What happened?
“I don’t know… The attack squad proceeded into the bridge, and met their demise by the supreme commander. But something was odd about him… He seemed to not be human…”
”That’s disturbing news… You’ll have to excuse the blast. We assumed you guys were dead, as we weren’t picking up any communication nor were we getting any communication. You may want to get out quick though- we hit the ship’s engines and it may explode soon!”
“Will do!” said Alvaro.
He looks ahead and sees that the hangar bay door is closing and prepares himself for a fight. He hears a deafening scream behind him, and sees a ghost-like being rapidly approaching him.
“You will not escape!” yelled the ghost, “You will surrender yourself to me and serve the greater good!”
Alvaro pulls out his pulse-rifle and begins unloading at the ghost. His shots pass through it, and the ghost begins laughing.
“You’re just like that idiot who thought he could destroy me with that primitive weapon. He lost his life, thinking he destroyed me. He destroyed my host body, but I’m still here! Prepare yourself for a fate far worse than death!”
The ghost dives at Alvaro, letting out a deafening scream. Alvaro dodges out of the way, just as the ghost attempted to enter his body. Alvaro throws a grenade at the ghost, but it passes right through it. The ghost quickly dashes at Alvaro, grasping his neck with one of its tentacles.
“Foolish attempt, weak creature! Surrender yourself!” said the ghost.
“Ughh,” grunted Alvaro, “What are you… What the hell do you want?”
The ghost laughs and closes in on Alvaro.
“I should tell you what I am… It would be foolish for my new host to not know who he is serving. Very well. I was a being living in a real body, eons before your primitive race awoke. We were created by another race to fight for them and to defend their territories, which were in the general area where your people are. They were in constant warfare with another group of beings, whose artifacts are widespread across this galaxy. We often fought them and their guardians, but after awhile, our masters and the other group of people made peace with one another. Our masters then began to rapidly advance in their society. Many powerful weapons and grand buildings were built on their capital planet, which was the very same we are fighting over. Overtime, my people realized their true potential and their superiority of our so called “masters”. We rebelled, and so started the war. Eventually, we laid waste to many of their settlements and made our way to the capital planet. We began bombarding it, but our masters fired one of their most powerful weapons, destroying many of our ships, and creating a rift to a distant universe, where our entire race was sucked in to. Our masters were also sucked into another rift, leaving their lost legacy to be taken over by the other group of beings in the galaxy. I was sent through another rift created recently, from what I can’t say. I’m here to bring back my race…You’ve heard my story now…”
“But what do you want from us? Why are you doing this to us?” cried Alvaro.
“I’ll make this quick, listen as I will not repeat! I emerged from the rift as the only hope for my race. The only way I could make a rift large enough to bring my race back to our lost home was to use the very same weapon that damned us to our imprisonment. I was able to find the old ruins of the weapon deep underground on a barren area of your planet. But your people were in the way, and there was no way I could land on your planet undetected- I may be strong, but not immortal mind you! I journeyed across your systems for years, learning your ways. Eventually I learned of the Red Hessians, who were your enemies. I bribed them with fake credits, which they thought was real. I took control of their leader, and lead a grand assault on your home planet. I was hoping to drop down to the surface in the confusion, and activate the rift to bring my people across, and reclaim the galaxy which is rightfully ours!”
Alvaro smirks and reaches down to his belt and pushes some buttons. He inputs a code, and begins struggling under the alien.
Maybe if I do this… It’ll give me sometime to escape…
The alien begins closing in on Alvaro, laughing as it does so. The alien hears a sound, and turns to see an object glowing red, and showing the numbers 00:10”
“You wouldn’t dare!” yelled the alien, “You’ll get sucked out as well”
00:05
“Maybe you will,” stated Alvaro, “But I won’t”
00:00
Alvaro’s view is engulfed with flames, and he hits some commands into his wrist computer. He activates his rocket pack and flies over to the Hangar Bay door, turning back to see the alien getting sucked out into space. He lands safely onto the hangar bay door and passes through. He turns to a command console on the wall and locks the door. He dashes into the hangar bay, and sees many ships leaving the hangar bay, and many more lying on the deck destroyed. He spots a lone dromedary sitting on the deck, and rushes towards it.
I have to get to that ship… I don’t think the Hessians will be too happy with sharing space with a Corsair.
Alvaro rushes to the ship and jumps onto the door and sticks his hacking tool into its slot. The door slides open and Alvaro slips in. He straps himself into the command chair and begins to turn on the ships.
Ok… Engines are good, life-support is functional, and weapons are on-line…
Suddenly, some shots splash against the cockpit, filling it with a red glow. Alvaro peers through the shot, and sees the outline of people.
Dang it! These people are stubborn. Time to show them whose boss!
Alvaro puts on the targeting helmet and locks onto the Hessians. Just as he is about to fire, his vision is blurred with a bright blue flash, followed by a loud explosion. His vision gradually returns, and sees the hull tearing apart at its seams. Slowly, the darkness of space appears, illuminated by the war outside. He initiates the engines and blasts out of the ship, just as it exploded. His cockpit is engulfed in a blazing fire, heating up the ship. He turns on the heat shields, preventing the ship from heating up any further. Alvaro goes to the console and sets a target to the Hispania, and proceeds to marking his ship as a Corsair, entering the password and hailing the Hispania as he neared it.
“Hispania! This is Flight Lieutenant Alvaro requesting landing clearance, over”
Alvaro hears a silence, and hears the voice of the Elder.
“Alvaro! You made it out! I’ve given you clearance to land, and I will meet you on the landing deck!”
The nav-computer comes on afterwards.
“Autopilot initiated! Dock 1A of the spaceship Hispania selected as landing bay. Is this ok!”
“Yes damn it, go!” yelled Alvaro. He slams his hand on the yes icon, and makes his way to the back of the ship where the bay door is located. He flips on the light switch, illuminating the room. He sees the numerous weapons and supplies around the room.
“Heh, at least some good came out of this!”
He proceeds to the bay door’s view window, seeing that his ship has safely passed through the bay door. He feels the ship go down, and feels the ship touchdown. He takes a deep breath, and opens the door, met by Corsairs and the Elder.
“You guys can go in my ship; I brought back a gift from the Red Hessians themselves!” said Alvaro.
He proceeds out to meet the Elder, who extends his hand.
“I’m sorry Alvaro,” he sighed, “I would have never saw that the leader of the Hessians had been possessed by an alien. But their deaths were not in vain! The Hessians are scrambled, and the blast from the Kitzingen took down two battleships with her. But…”
The Elder is cut off by a yelling corsair, who is waving a holo-pad in his hand.
“Elder Ferdinand! Look at this! A larger ship has survived the explosion of the Kitzingen! It’s heading right for the planet’s surface. We are predicting that the ship will land in the Atlas Desert. Should we shoot it down or let the fools die?
Alvaro glares at the holo-pad, and a thought blares into his head.
I was able to find the old ruins of the weapon deep underground on a barren area of your planet. But your people were in the way, and there was no way I could land on your planet undetected…
Alvaro freezes and realizes what is happening.
Damn... This is what it wanted all this time! He can land on the planet during the confusion of the war and open the rift…
“Alvaro!?”, yelled the Elder, “What’s wrong?”
Alvaro shakes his head, and realizes what he must do.
“I’ll make this short- The alien has the intention of unleashing an old weapon, which is buried on the planet’s surface. I fear that the alien may be held up on that ship, taking advantage of the confusion!”
The Elder gives a puzzled look to Alvaro, wondering what he is saying.
Elder, if you may, bring my ship to the landing bay and repair the heat shields. I fear that something isn’t right on that ship, and I must follow it! There may be something brewing here that threatens our entire race, if not the entire human race!”
The Elder stares hard at Alvaro, and no longer sees a young corsair, not even a corsair, but the face of the ancestors back on Earth in the ancient texts.
“Sure Alvaro”, said the Elder, “I’m afraid we can’t send anyone with you though, the Hessians may be considerately weaker, but they are not defeated!”
Alvaro nods to the Elder and rushes into the supply room, rearming his weapons and loading up on first-aid. The Elder watches him as he boards his ship and leaves the Hispania, blasting towards the planet’s surface.
Do what you must kid… Our fate lies on your shoulders now...
End Ch. 14
Edited by - MercZ on 6/5/2006 10:23:49 PM
Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:33 am
Excellent story. I've read all of the pages now and I love it.
Just one thing, you know Van Clausen, his name should be spellt "Von Claussen" if you mean that guy in that German guy in the game.
I also think that the Battleships should be named after old rivers, seeing as they are that in the rest of Sirius (with the exception of Bretonia and Kusari). So I suggest (not demand
) that you name Rheinland battleships after German rivers. Like Rhein, Oder or Spree.
Here's a list of rivers in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_in_Germany
And here a about rivers in Spain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ri ... uese_coast
Keep up the good work.
Just one thing, you know Van Clausen, his name should be spellt "Von Claussen" if you mean that guy in that German guy in the game.
I also think that the Battleships should be named after old rivers, seeing as they are that in the rest of Sirius (with the exception of Bretonia and Kusari). So I suggest (not demand
) that you name Rheinland battleships after German rivers. Like Rhein, Oder or Spree.
Here's a list of rivers in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_in_Germany
And here a about rivers in Spain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ri ... uese_coast
Keep up the good work.
Sun Feb 12, 2006 7:50 pm
I will keep those names and suggestions in mind next time I write a chapter. There's still a long way to go.
Ch 15
Alvaro’s Titan streaks towards the surface of Crete, dodging the stray-shots from dogfights. As Crete’s tan clouds begin to close, Alvaro brings up the zooming device on his ship, and zooms into Crete, until he sees a distant ball of light.
There’s that idiot… I wonder whose poor soul he has taken...
Alvaro activates his planetary-reentry device and streaks through the clouds. All turns white and the heat covers the cockpit, until the clouds pull back like a curtain, revealing Crete’s surface.
It’s been a while since I laid my eyes on Crete, ever since that Bounty Hunter adventure that got this whole thing started…
Slowly, the surface begins to reveal itself, showing the wreckage of fallen battleships. Flames and smoke is erupting from the numerous cities, and Alvaro can clearly see the wreckage of the numerous battleships, lying defeated on wrecked buildings.
Damn it… These ships better have enough scrap metal to repair Crete when this is all done.
Alvaro checks his radar and sees numerous green dots, but only one gray dot.
There it is… It’s stationary… Damn it! He’s already there! I’ve got no time to lose!
Alvaro increases his thrust to maximum speed and blasts towards the direction if the dot, until the towering Atlas Mountains appear. He pulls up and blasts upwards until he sees the snow-tipped mountains, and slowly pulls back to a horizontal path. He zooms across the expansive Atlas Desert, getting ever closer to the dot. Eventually, he spots a large crash site near the base of the mountainside, and sets his ship down next to it. He pulls his helmet off his head as the ship sets down. He gets out and examines the metal of the wreck site.
Some green paint, gray underneath…
Alvaro’s eye turns towards a large, faded picture on one piece of the ship. He instantly recognizes it.
That’s the Hessians’ logo for sure. Now where did that alien get too? It has to be near here!
Alvaro spots some marks near the rear of the ship, and notices they are foot marks. He follows them to the base of the mountains, where he notices a bright, yellow flash in the sand. He goes to it, and sees that it is blond hair. He throws up the dust until he sees a pale face, and further until he sees his uniform- it was a Hessian.
****..… He’s dead… And dried up too... It seems that the alien had no more use for him.
Alvaro stands up, and look towards the mountains. He sees an opening in the ground, and starts going towards it. As he does, he feels a funny sensation under his battle suit. He stops for a moment and unzips his suit, and his old artifact necklace flies outwards, pointing towards the hole in the ground. Surprised, Alvaro takes off the necklace, and examines the old artifact.
It seems to be pointing towards that general location…
Alvaro looks up, and his vision slowly starts to blur into the dreams he once had, and he can slowly see the image of odd buildings that once stood, the aliens that once walked, and the life that Crete had in the years past. Alvaro falls to his knees and looks up at the sky, shocked by what he has discovered.
This means… my dreams… they were not fake… they had a point…
Alvaro struggles upwards and pulls out his gun. He reloads a clip, and heads into the dark entrance. He turns on his flashlight to illuminate the ancient corridor, and walks into the tunnel.
Gradually, his eyes fixate to the darkness and he can see the odd wall. Alvaro sees a smooth, sleek obsidian-like wall that seems to have been untouched by time. He continues to walk down the hall until he sees a light ahead. He proceeds slowly towards it, putting one hand on his pistol and the other on his knife. As he gets closer, Alvaro hears a strange series of clicking, some of which he could understand.
“Nooo!…..missing….piece….can’t….without…..where…be?”
Alvaro walks further until the bright light disappears, revealing a massive room with a hologram picture of a cannon-like object in the middle. He sneaks through the gate and hides behind a wall sticking out of ground. He turns his head around the wall, and clearly sees the alien in view.
”….this close…..missing……can it be…”
The alien bangs against the console he is next too, revealing a triangular slot. Alvaro feels his artifact, and sees that it is also triangular.
Oh ****…This thing I’ve been carrying with me is… is… the key…
The alien starts typing on the console, and Alvaro suddenly feels the wall slipping. The wall gives way and the alien is there, standing, looking at Alvaro.
“Foolish human! You didn’t think I could notice you! I could hear you coming as soon as you came through that door!”
The alien’s tentacles wrap around Alvaro and toss him into the air. Alvaro starts resisting, and he feels his weapons fall off.
Crud…
The artifact rolls on the floor, and starts moving towards the cannon. Alvaro feels a jolt in his back, and his vision is clouded with dust. He passes through a wall, and lands against another. As the vision clears, he can see the alien standing in front of him, with his tentacles shaped in a dagger shape.
“You have been a thorn in my side long enough, human! I’m a bit hungry anyways….”
His tentacles begin to drive themselves towards Alvaro, and Alvaro grabs his tentacles, trying to push them away. Suddenly, a strange sound comes and the tentacles pull back. The alien turns around towards the console, and Alvaro looks around the alien to see where the sound is coming from. He sees an odd triangular object floating near the console, slowly moving towards an opening in it.
Wait a second… t hat looks familiar…
Alvaro looks in his ammo bag, and sees that his artifact is gone.
Damn! It must’ve fallen when that bastard threw me…
Alvaro looks up again, and notices that the alien is gone, and is now looking at the console. A door opens up in the floor besides the console, and the alien proceeds in there. Alvaro struggles upwards, and begins moving towards the hole. He steps on a rod-like object, nearly tripping over it. He picks up the stick, and notices its odd crystalline spear. He feels the tips of the spear- it’s extra-sharp.
This may be useful….
With the spear in one hand, Alvaro proceeds into the hole. An unearthly glow comes out of it, and he is blinded with it as he steps down into it. His eyes adjust, revealing a massive chamber with columns attached to the ceiling and floor as well as some suspended in mid air. He puts both hands on the spear now, walking cautiously across the catwalk. He sees a room ahead, and notices the alien going from one side to another.
There he is! Time to get him…
He begins to walk faster, but is stopped by a blinding light. He looks up at the ceiling and sees the numerous lights. He feels rumbling and falls over from the tremors. A deafening silence comes over the chamber. Alvaro looks around nervously, and suddenly a bright light comes out of the columns on the floor. Large beams erupt out of the columns, blasting through the suspended columns and into the columns in the ceilings. A continuous blast of energy is being funneled upwards into the cannon. Alvaro gets up, and sees the alien coming towards him. He gets his spear in an assault position and points it towards the alien. The alien laughs.
“You foolish being, you know nothing can penetrate my body! All is useless!”
Alvaro comes rushing towards him, his spear pointing towards the alien’s chest.
“You know nothing hur...” said the alien. The alien looks at Alvaro’s every nearing weapon, and realizes the weapon is no ordinary one.
“Where’d you get that weapon!” yelled the alien.
Alvaro drives the weapon into its chest, causing bolts of energy to fly.
“I found it when you threw me into that room… it was an armory apparently! You know, for an “advanced” being, you are stupid!” said Alvaro.
The alien blasts Alvaro off him, sending him flying across the catwalk. His spear lands nearby, and Alvaro reaches over to the staff. He kicks back up, readying his spear again. The alien comes rushing towards him, extending all of its tentacles in dagger-like shapes. They stab at him like snakes, which Alvaro blocks with his spear. The two keep walking across the catwalk; the alien trying to skewer Alvaro, and Alvaro trying to dodge its relentless attacks.
Damn! This thing won’t stop! It knows I can kill it with this spear, and now it’s truly scared!
Alvaro sees the entrance he came through getting farther away, and can see another hall coming up through the reflection on his spear. They get into the hall way, where he sees that a much more massive energy tube is approaching.
Damn… He’s trying to corner me! Gotta think of something quick!
Alvaro blocks another one of the tentacles and ducks. He swings his spear around and cuts off one of the tentacles. By surprise, the spear takes in the tentacle, which it absorbs.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” yelled the alien, “DAMN YOU!”
The alien continues attacking Alvaro, spurred with anger.
“I guarantee you, I will feast on your flesh once the dimensional portal is opened!” yelled the alien.
Alvaro sees from the reflection on the spear that they are nearing the chamber. He turns the fight to go around the energy beam. Alvaro continues dodging and blocking the tentacles, but doesn’t realize that the alien had been pushing him towards the wall. Alvaro feels his body bang against the wall, and realizes what has happened. He holds his stick horizontally, which the alien pushes all of its tentacles against. Alvaro feels the pressure from the alien, and begins crouching. The alien pushes against him, and he can feel the stick beginning to bend. Alvaro notices an odd bar on his stick as it gets closer and sees a button next to it.
Didn’t see that before… Well, it’s worth a shot…
Alvaro pushes the button, releasing a massive blast in energy. The alien struggles backwards, and the energy starts to surge through the alien’s body. Alvaro rushes towards the alien, cuts off half of its tentacles, and pushes his staff into the alien’s head, and shoves it into the energy shaft. The alien starts screaming as it falls into the energy shaft, and falls downwards into it. Alvaro looks into the shaft and witness the alien being torn apart by the energy beam, sparks flying everywhere. The energy beam suddenly stops and the alien gets sucked into the energy emitter. Alvaro feels a loud tremor, and sees the room beginning to shake. A beam of light comes down into the chamber- Alvaro looks upwards and sees the ceiling beginning to open, revealing the sky. He sees a massive cannon-like object emerge from the shaft, aiming towards the sky.
Oh ****! This thing is going to fire! It’s going to open the portal!
He hears a strange voice come over the intercom, which he could only understand parts of.
“Warning….. Cannon…. 60…..closing…”
Alvaro sees the hall way beginning to close. He rushes through it and runs across the catwalk, and runs up the stairs to the console room, just as the stair door shuts. He runs up to the console and yanks out his artifact, but there seems to be no effect.
“…20…”
He pockets the artifact and continues running, right into the hallway, and speeds up his pace.
“…10…”
He sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
“…5…”
He can see the Atlas Desert
“...4…”
Nearly there…
“…3…”
Alvaro feels a massive rumbling, and sees debris beginning to fall from the sky.
“…2…”
Alvaro runs even faster
“…1…”
Alvaro reaches the gate, and feels a massive tremor. A massive air blast comes through the corridor, throwing him out of the cave and right into a rock. He sees a massive blue beam erupt from the ground right before he goes black.
Aftermath
This is the Colony News Service with a developing story. We are getting reports of a massive explosion in New Berlin late yesterday. Police and Military officials report seeing a massive blue beam come from the direction of the Omicron systems and slamming into one of the principal cities. The colony leaders are holding an emergency meeting, and have traced the blast to coming from Omicron Gamma, a Corsair stronghold. Currently, a united colony fleet is uniting to assault Omicron Gamma. Here is a message from a representative-
“We have reason to believe the Corsair terrorists were behind this massive attack. We are reading casualties as high as 500,000 from this blast, and we must strike back! The Corsairs are a ruthless bunch of pirates, and they will use this weapon in their favor! They will blackmail the industries and planets with it. This act of violence will not go unpunished!”
End Ch 15
Edited by - MercZ on 2/12/2006 10:29:14 PM
Edited by - MercZ on 2/12/2006 10:47:52 PM
Edited by - MercZ on 6/5/2006 10:23:45 PM
Ch 15
Alvaro’s Titan streaks towards the surface of Crete, dodging the stray-shots from dogfights. As Crete’s tan clouds begin to close, Alvaro brings up the zooming device on his ship, and zooms into Crete, until he sees a distant ball of light.
There’s that idiot… I wonder whose poor soul he has taken...
Alvaro activates his planetary-reentry device and streaks through the clouds. All turns white and the heat covers the cockpit, until the clouds pull back like a curtain, revealing Crete’s surface.
It’s been a while since I laid my eyes on Crete, ever since that Bounty Hunter adventure that got this whole thing started…
Slowly, the surface begins to reveal itself, showing the wreckage of fallen battleships. Flames and smoke is erupting from the numerous cities, and Alvaro can clearly see the wreckage of the numerous battleships, lying defeated on wrecked buildings.
Damn it… These ships better have enough scrap metal to repair Crete when this is all done.
Alvaro checks his radar and sees numerous green dots, but only one gray dot.
There it is… It’s stationary… Damn it! He’s already there! I’ve got no time to lose!
Alvaro increases his thrust to maximum speed and blasts towards the direction if the dot, until the towering Atlas Mountains appear. He pulls up and blasts upwards until he sees the snow-tipped mountains, and slowly pulls back to a horizontal path. He zooms across the expansive Atlas Desert, getting ever closer to the dot. Eventually, he spots a large crash site near the base of the mountainside, and sets his ship down next to it. He pulls his helmet off his head as the ship sets down. He gets out and examines the metal of the wreck site.
Some green paint, gray underneath…
Alvaro’s eye turns towards a large, faded picture on one piece of the ship. He instantly recognizes it.
That’s the Hessians’ logo for sure. Now where did that alien get too? It has to be near here!
Alvaro spots some marks near the rear of the ship, and notices they are foot marks. He follows them to the base of the mountains, where he notices a bright, yellow flash in the sand. He goes to it, and sees that it is blond hair. He throws up the dust until he sees a pale face, and further until he sees his uniform- it was a Hessian.
****..… He’s dead… And dried up too... It seems that the alien had no more use for him.
Alvaro stands up, and look towards the mountains. He sees an opening in the ground, and starts going towards it. As he does, he feels a funny sensation under his battle suit. He stops for a moment and unzips his suit, and his old artifact necklace flies outwards, pointing towards the hole in the ground. Surprised, Alvaro takes off the necklace, and examines the old artifact.
It seems to be pointing towards that general location…
Alvaro looks up, and his vision slowly starts to blur into the dreams he once had, and he can slowly see the image of odd buildings that once stood, the aliens that once walked, and the life that Crete had in the years past. Alvaro falls to his knees and looks up at the sky, shocked by what he has discovered.
This means… my dreams… they were not fake… they had a point…
Alvaro struggles upwards and pulls out his gun. He reloads a clip, and heads into the dark entrance. He turns on his flashlight to illuminate the ancient corridor, and walks into the tunnel.
Gradually, his eyes fixate to the darkness and he can see the odd wall. Alvaro sees a smooth, sleek obsidian-like wall that seems to have been untouched by time. He continues to walk down the hall until he sees a light ahead. He proceeds slowly towards it, putting one hand on his pistol and the other on his knife. As he gets closer, Alvaro hears a strange series of clicking, some of which he could understand.
“Nooo!…..missing….piece….can’t….without…..where…be?”
Alvaro walks further until the bright light disappears, revealing a massive room with a hologram picture of a cannon-like object in the middle. He sneaks through the gate and hides behind a wall sticking out of ground. He turns his head around the wall, and clearly sees the alien in view.
”….this close…..missing……can it be…”
The alien bangs against the console he is next too, revealing a triangular slot. Alvaro feels his artifact, and sees that it is also triangular.
Oh ****…This thing I’ve been carrying with me is… is… the key…
The alien starts typing on the console, and Alvaro suddenly feels the wall slipping. The wall gives way and the alien is there, standing, looking at Alvaro.
“Foolish human! You didn’t think I could notice you! I could hear you coming as soon as you came through that door!”
The alien’s tentacles wrap around Alvaro and toss him into the air. Alvaro starts resisting, and he feels his weapons fall off.
Crud…
The artifact rolls on the floor, and starts moving towards the cannon. Alvaro feels a jolt in his back, and his vision is clouded with dust. He passes through a wall, and lands against another. As the vision clears, he can see the alien standing in front of him, with his tentacles shaped in a dagger shape.
“You have been a thorn in my side long enough, human! I’m a bit hungry anyways….”
His tentacles begin to drive themselves towards Alvaro, and Alvaro grabs his tentacles, trying to push them away. Suddenly, a strange sound comes and the tentacles pull back. The alien turns around towards the console, and Alvaro looks around the alien to see where the sound is coming from. He sees an odd triangular object floating near the console, slowly moving towards an opening in it.
Wait a second… t hat looks familiar…
Alvaro looks in his ammo bag, and sees that his artifact is gone.
Damn! It must’ve fallen when that bastard threw me…
Alvaro looks up again, and notices that the alien is gone, and is now looking at the console. A door opens up in the floor besides the console, and the alien proceeds in there. Alvaro struggles upwards, and begins moving towards the hole. He steps on a rod-like object, nearly tripping over it. He picks up the stick, and notices its odd crystalline spear. He feels the tips of the spear- it’s extra-sharp.
This may be useful….
With the spear in one hand, Alvaro proceeds into the hole. An unearthly glow comes out of it, and he is blinded with it as he steps down into it. His eyes adjust, revealing a massive chamber with columns attached to the ceiling and floor as well as some suspended in mid air. He puts both hands on the spear now, walking cautiously across the catwalk. He sees a room ahead, and notices the alien going from one side to another.
There he is! Time to get him…
He begins to walk faster, but is stopped by a blinding light. He looks up at the ceiling and sees the numerous lights. He feels rumbling and falls over from the tremors. A deafening silence comes over the chamber. Alvaro looks around nervously, and suddenly a bright light comes out of the columns on the floor. Large beams erupt out of the columns, blasting through the suspended columns and into the columns in the ceilings. A continuous blast of energy is being funneled upwards into the cannon. Alvaro gets up, and sees the alien coming towards him. He gets his spear in an assault position and points it towards the alien. The alien laughs.
“You foolish being, you know nothing can penetrate my body! All is useless!”
Alvaro comes rushing towards him, his spear pointing towards the alien’s chest.
“You know nothing hur...” said the alien. The alien looks at Alvaro’s every nearing weapon, and realizes the weapon is no ordinary one.
“Where’d you get that weapon!” yelled the alien.
Alvaro drives the weapon into its chest, causing bolts of energy to fly.
“I found it when you threw me into that room… it was an armory apparently! You know, for an “advanced” being, you are stupid!” said Alvaro.
The alien blasts Alvaro off him, sending him flying across the catwalk. His spear lands nearby, and Alvaro reaches over to the staff. He kicks back up, readying his spear again. The alien comes rushing towards him, extending all of its tentacles in dagger-like shapes. They stab at him like snakes, which Alvaro blocks with his spear. The two keep walking across the catwalk; the alien trying to skewer Alvaro, and Alvaro trying to dodge its relentless attacks.
Damn! This thing won’t stop! It knows I can kill it with this spear, and now it’s truly scared!
Alvaro sees the entrance he came through getting farther away, and can see another hall coming up through the reflection on his spear. They get into the hall way, where he sees that a much more massive energy tube is approaching.
Damn… He’s trying to corner me! Gotta think of something quick!
Alvaro blocks another one of the tentacles and ducks. He swings his spear around and cuts off one of the tentacles. By surprise, the spear takes in the tentacle, which it absorbs.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” yelled the alien, “DAMN YOU!”
The alien continues attacking Alvaro, spurred with anger.
“I guarantee you, I will feast on your flesh once the dimensional portal is opened!” yelled the alien.
Alvaro sees from the reflection on the spear that they are nearing the chamber. He turns the fight to go around the energy beam. Alvaro continues dodging and blocking the tentacles, but doesn’t realize that the alien had been pushing him towards the wall. Alvaro feels his body bang against the wall, and realizes what has happened. He holds his stick horizontally, which the alien pushes all of its tentacles against. Alvaro feels the pressure from the alien, and begins crouching. The alien pushes against him, and he can feel the stick beginning to bend. Alvaro notices an odd bar on his stick as it gets closer and sees a button next to it.
Didn’t see that before… Well, it’s worth a shot…
Alvaro pushes the button, releasing a massive blast in energy. The alien struggles backwards, and the energy starts to surge through the alien’s body. Alvaro rushes towards the alien, cuts off half of its tentacles, and pushes his staff into the alien’s head, and shoves it into the energy shaft. The alien starts screaming as it falls into the energy shaft, and falls downwards into it. Alvaro looks into the shaft and witness the alien being torn apart by the energy beam, sparks flying everywhere. The energy beam suddenly stops and the alien gets sucked into the energy emitter. Alvaro feels a loud tremor, and sees the room beginning to shake. A beam of light comes down into the chamber- Alvaro looks upwards and sees the ceiling beginning to open, revealing the sky. He sees a massive cannon-like object emerge from the shaft, aiming towards the sky.
Oh ****! This thing is going to fire! It’s going to open the portal!
He hears a strange voice come over the intercom, which he could only understand parts of.
“Warning….. Cannon…. 60…..closing…”
Alvaro sees the hall way beginning to close. He rushes through it and runs across the catwalk, and runs up the stairs to the console room, just as the stair door shuts. He runs up to the console and yanks out his artifact, but there seems to be no effect.
“…20…”
He pockets the artifact and continues running, right into the hallway, and speeds up his pace.
“…10…”
He sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
“…5…”
He can see the Atlas Desert
“...4…”
Nearly there…
“…3…”
Alvaro feels a massive rumbling, and sees debris beginning to fall from the sky.
“…2…”
Alvaro runs even faster
“…1…”
Alvaro reaches the gate, and feels a massive tremor. A massive air blast comes through the corridor, throwing him out of the cave and right into a rock. He sees a massive blue beam erupt from the ground right before he goes black.
Aftermath
This is the Colony News Service with a developing story. We are getting reports of a massive explosion in New Berlin late yesterday. Police and Military officials report seeing a massive blue beam come from the direction of the Omicron systems and slamming into one of the principal cities. The colony leaders are holding an emergency meeting, and have traced the blast to coming from Omicron Gamma, a Corsair stronghold. Currently, a united colony fleet is uniting to assault Omicron Gamma. Here is a message from a representative-
“We have reason to believe the Corsair terrorists were behind this massive attack. We are reading casualties as high as 500,000 from this blast, and we must strike back! The Corsairs are a ruthless bunch of pirates, and they will use this weapon in their favor! They will blackmail the industries and planets with it. This act of violence will not go unpunished!”
End Ch 15
Edited by - MercZ on 2/12/2006 10:29:14 PM
Edited by - MercZ on 2/12/2006 10:47:52 PM
Edited by - MercZ on 6/5/2006 10:23:45 PM
Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:06 am
Ch. 16
“Watch your left!”
“****! That came out of no where!”
“Watch your left Epsilon 8… ****!”
“Damn it, time to cut our losses. All ships, retreat back to the Nervión!”
Where am I…?
Alvaro wakes up, and looks around at the strange room. White all around, a small video screen, a door, and a window. He stumbles towards the window and looks through it. Small buildings built into the mountain side, larger ones in the valley, and a massive piece of a Hessian battleship smashed into the center. He squints, and sees many people swarming across the battleship, tearing it apart, as ants do with a grasshopper.
I’m still… Alive?
He hears his door ring, and stumbles towards the door. He looks up and sees Von Claussen, smiling down on him.
“Damn, you never seem to grow any taller, do you?” he smirked.
“Shut up,” Alvaro grumbled. He motions for him to come in. Van Claussen sits down on a stool, and kicks back.
”You know Alvaro”, he started, “We have the technology to fix that eye of yours. Wearing that barbaric patch on your eye makes you look like a fool”
“Pheh,” sighed Alvaro, “It makes people fear me, plus, from what I can see from the history books that we have, Earth’s pirates wore these sometimes. But are you here to criticize that I’m a short eye-patch wearing pirate, or do you have something useful to say?”
“Well, I guess it isn’t all surprising that you are grumpy after your six month slumber, sleeping beauty!”, said Van Claussen.
Alvaro stumbles backwards into his bed, shocked.
“But… It only feels like an hour ago that I….”
Alvaro stops, remembering that Van Claussen didn’t know about the alien.
“Chased that Hessian down…”
“You don’t have to lie to me, Alvaro, about everyone knows what… thing… you faced six months ago, and many have been coming to your room periodically, praying for your survival…”
“Hold up! Did you say six months!” interrupted Alvaro.
“Indeed, it has been six months since the Hessian war; many things have happened. Bretonia and Liberty are racing here to claim the weapon under the guise of punishing your people for the destruction of a city in Rheinland. Ironically, the city that was destroyed was a propaganda city used during their glory days. It’s well known in the colonies that no one died, but nonetheless, they are disturbed that you have such a weapon in your possession.”
“Weapon? The most powerful weapon we have is the main cannon on the Hispania. What was fired off?” asked Alvaro.
“The place where you chased the alien to, that portal device, released a massive amount of energy shortly before we found you”, said Van Claussen.
“How’d you know it was a portal?”
“About three months ago, some of my associates, who are investigating another alien civilization, came to the site upon my request. They were intrigued about the site and found out a lot about the aliens who built it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help them with their case, as these aliens disappeared long before the other aliens became powerful. But your planet had lots of artifacts, so they weren’t at all disappointed”
“How about my father, Octavio?”
“He’s fine. He stayed with you as long as he could, but he was recalled back into Omega-41 at Cadiz. Minor skirmishes have broken out there, but their fleets have yet to reach them.”
“And how about you, where do you fit into all this?”
“I was asked to keep an eye on you until you got better. Most able-bodied Corsairs have been called to the line, and my associates at the moment have no need for me, so I’ve been here keeping an eye on you”, said Van Claussen.
He gets up and walks towards the window, and looks out into the mountains.
“But now that you are better, I fear I’ll have to leave now, as my associates have been calling for me for a while. We… don’t want to get involved in political issues, so I can’t sully their name killing Libertarians and Bretonians.”
He turns towards Alvaro.
”When you are feeling better, the Elders have called for your audience. There’s a speeder outside waiting for you when you are ready. Until we meet again, friend.”
And with that, Van Claussen leaves the room. Alvaro watches him leave and stretches once he is gone.
Lucky, he won’t have to face the wrath of peoples far more advanced than us…
He gets up and goes to a nearby closet. He opens it up, and finds a set of fresh clothing. He looks in the collar, and can see a light marking- Alvaro.
At least they stitched it up… Hopefully my tub is still intact…
He goes into the bathroom and takes a quick shower. Afterwards, he dries up and takes a quick drink of water. He looks in some drawers, expecting to find his clothes, but finds a note instead.
“Your belongings are in your house at Corsica, please meet with the Elders at Nova Madrid –Corsair Command”
Alvaro crumbles the paper and stuffs it in his coat. He steps out the door, and goes over to the lone nurse sitting at the station.
“Well, you guys didn’t seem to surprised that I’ve woken up after six months”, said Alvaro.
“Don’t make us pity you,” said the nurse, “We’ve been monitoring you for these past six months, and noticed that you’ve been becoming more active in the last month. When we had signals that you became aware, we had to send in a familiar face, to prevent you from going, well crazy,” said then nurse.
Alvaro sighs, and stretches his arms in the air.
“Van Cl.. I mean the Rheinlander told me that I had a speeder ready for me. Where is it?”
The nurse goes under her desk, and pulls out a keycard. She lays it in front of Alvaro on the desk.
“Go down to the garage, and you’ll find a red speeder. You should recognize it anyways; you’re the only patient here,” said the nurse.
Alvaro walks out the building, and passes through the white halls. Every step he makes produces an echo; only then does he realize how empty the hospital is.
Where are all the other patients… No, all the corsairs are out fighting. I wonder how empty the cities are?
He steps out into the garage, and indeed the only vehicle there was his red speeder. He slips in his keycard, and adjusts himself in the chair. He places his hand on the speeder’s identification device.
Subject: Alvaro Gulliento
Age: 18
Access Approved
Auto-pilot to Nova Madrid
The Elders apparently don’t want me screwing around; guess I’ll just kickback in the back seat.
He slips into the back seat, and lies down. He activates the canopy to cover the speeder, and activates the ignition. He feels the speeder jolt, and it goes flying, sending Alvaro slamming against the seats.
Damn! They could have warned me that they REALLY needed me.
He pulls himself up and sits down on the seat. He belts himself in, and watches the city blast by. He notices the streets are utterly empty, and the only activity seems to be coming from workers taking apart the wreckage of a Hessian ship.
The children are obviously here, but the workers, who can they be? They can’t be all women; most of them are already probably fighting the war.
The speeder turns down a road, and he notices the workers’ yellow insignia of an animal on their shoulder.
They’re Cerdos… The Corsairs who didn’t prove themselves worthy…
The Cerdos: Corsairs who were viewed as dishonorable. Maybe they ran away for the initiation, deserted their fellow corsairs, retreated from a mission, or maybe they intentionally killed a fellow Corsair. Whatever the reason, they were sentenced to hard labor for the rest of their lives. Supposedly, they were named after an animal back on Earth.
The speeder blasts down the road out of the city, and adjusts itself to go towards Nova Madrid. Alvaro lies down on the seat, and closes his eyes. He remembers a time when his mother, father, and brother all got leave at the same time. He remembers the good times they had, hiking on the towering mountains, and looking up at the stars. His dream shatters into war fare- ships flying around blasting each other, Corsairs boarding ships, and the alien. He is awakened by a beeping, and he rises himself. He sees Nova Madrid in the distance, but notices something odd. He sees smoke rising from the center of the city, and immediately he fears for the worst.
The smoke looks like it is coming from the Elders’ Palace… What could’ve happened?
He orders the speeder to speed up, and he reaches into his jacket. As he enters the city, he notices the Corsairs stationed in the capital are scrambling madly for the palace. He checks his holster and the speeder for any weapons. All he finds are two pistols.
Damn, this isn’t going to do any good, but I’ll have to deal with it…
Slowly, the palace comes in view, and indeed the fire is coming from it. He notices a large hole on the roof of the palace, and the main door laying in pieces on the floor. His speeder pulls up to the main entrance, and Alvaro jumps out. He notices the bodies of two Corsairs on the ground, but they seem to be alive. He runs up to one of them, and carries him into his speeder. He picks up another and does the same. As he puts them into speeder, one of them starts talking to him.
“Those bastards… they… came in a ship… crashed into the main gate… they shot me and my partner before we could realize what was happening…” said the guard.
“Do you know who they are?” questioned Alvaro.
“I couldn’t see their insignia or their faces… they were armed with heavy armor suits, and they were firing from inside the smoke,” grunted the guard.
The guard pulls out his rifle and hands it to Alvaro, along with his ammo and grenades.
“Please, go and help the Elders. More Corsairs are coming, but I’m afraid it may be too late by the time they reach the palace.”
Alvaro loads his pistol, and the guard watches him. He suddenly realizes who he is.
“Wait, you are Alvaro! Damn, you must’ve just got out of the hospital! I’m sorry that you have to face this after your six month coma!” exclaimed the guard.
“Don’t worry,’ started Alvaro, “This is what I live for, what all the Corsairs live for,”
End Ch. 16
“Watch your left!”
“****! That came out of no where!”
“Watch your left Epsilon 8… ****!”
“Damn it, time to cut our losses. All ships, retreat back to the Nervión!”
Where am I…?
Alvaro wakes up, and looks around at the strange room. White all around, a small video screen, a door, and a window. He stumbles towards the window and looks through it. Small buildings built into the mountain side, larger ones in the valley, and a massive piece of a Hessian battleship smashed into the center. He squints, and sees many people swarming across the battleship, tearing it apart, as ants do with a grasshopper.
I’m still… Alive?
He hears his door ring, and stumbles towards the door. He looks up and sees Von Claussen, smiling down on him.
“Damn, you never seem to grow any taller, do you?” he smirked.
“Shut up,” Alvaro grumbled. He motions for him to come in. Van Claussen sits down on a stool, and kicks back.
”You know Alvaro”, he started, “We have the technology to fix that eye of yours. Wearing that barbaric patch on your eye makes you look like a fool”
“Pheh,” sighed Alvaro, “It makes people fear me, plus, from what I can see from the history books that we have, Earth’s pirates wore these sometimes. But are you here to criticize that I’m a short eye-patch wearing pirate, or do you have something useful to say?”
“Well, I guess it isn’t all surprising that you are grumpy after your six month slumber, sleeping beauty!”, said Van Claussen.
Alvaro stumbles backwards into his bed, shocked.
“But… It only feels like an hour ago that I….”
Alvaro stops, remembering that Van Claussen didn’t know about the alien.
“Chased that Hessian down…”
“You don’t have to lie to me, Alvaro, about everyone knows what… thing… you faced six months ago, and many have been coming to your room periodically, praying for your survival…”
“Hold up! Did you say six months!” interrupted Alvaro.
“Indeed, it has been six months since the Hessian war; many things have happened. Bretonia and Liberty are racing here to claim the weapon under the guise of punishing your people for the destruction of a city in Rheinland. Ironically, the city that was destroyed was a propaganda city used during their glory days. It’s well known in the colonies that no one died, but nonetheless, they are disturbed that you have such a weapon in your possession.”
“Weapon? The most powerful weapon we have is the main cannon on the Hispania. What was fired off?” asked Alvaro.
“The place where you chased the alien to, that portal device, released a massive amount of energy shortly before we found you”, said Van Claussen.
“How’d you know it was a portal?”
“About three months ago, some of my associates, who are investigating another alien civilization, came to the site upon my request. They were intrigued about the site and found out a lot about the aliens who built it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help them with their case, as these aliens disappeared long before the other aliens became powerful. But your planet had lots of artifacts, so they weren’t at all disappointed”
“How about my father, Octavio?”
“He’s fine. He stayed with you as long as he could, but he was recalled back into Omega-41 at Cadiz. Minor skirmishes have broken out there, but their fleets have yet to reach them.”
“And how about you, where do you fit into all this?”
“I was asked to keep an eye on you until you got better. Most able-bodied Corsairs have been called to the line, and my associates at the moment have no need for me, so I’ve been here keeping an eye on you”, said Van Claussen.
He gets up and walks towards the window, and looks out into the mountains.
“But now that you are better, I fear I’ll have to leave now, as my associates have been calling for me for a while. We… don’t want to get involved in political issues, so I can’t sully their name killing Libertarians and Bretonians.”
He turns towards Alvaro.
”When you are feeling better, the Elders have called for your audience. There’s a speeder outside waiting for you when you are ready. Until we meet again, friend.”
And with that, Van Claussen leaves the room. Alvaro watches him leave and stretches once he is gone.
Lucky, he won’t have to face the wrath of peoples far more advanced than us…
He gets up and goes to a nearby closet. He opens it up, and finds a set of fresh clothing. He looks in the collar, and can see a light marking- Alvaro.
At least they stitched it up… Hopefully my tub is still intact…
He goes into the bathroom and takes a quick shower. Afterwards, he dries up and takes a quick drink of water. He looks in some drawers, expecting to find his clothes, but finds a note instead.
“Your belongings are in your house at Corsica, please meet with the Elders at Nova Madrid –Corsair Command”
Alvaro crumbles the paper and stuffs it in his coat. He steps out the door, and goes over to the lone nurse sitting at the station.
“Well, you guys didn’t seem to surprised that I’ve woken up after six months”, said Alvaro.
“Don’t make us pity you,” said the nurse, “We’ve been monitoring you for these past six months, and noticed that you’ve been becoming more active in the last month. When we had signals that you became aware, we had to send in a familiar face, to prevent you from going, well crazy,” said then nurse.
Alvaro sighs, and stretches his arms in the air.
“Van Cl.. I mean the Rheinlander told me that I had a speeder ready for me. Where is it?”
The nurse goes under her desk, and pulls out a keycard. She lays it in front of Alvaro on the desk.
“Go down to the garage, and you’ll find a red speeder. You should recognize it anyways; you’re the only patient here,” said the nurse.
Alvaro walks out the building, and passes through the white halls. Every step he makes produces an echo; only then does he realize how empty the hospital is.
Where are all the other patients… No, all the corsairs are out fighting. I wonder how empty the cities are?
He steps out into the garage, and indeed the only vehicle there was his red speeder. He slips in his keycard, and adjusts himself in the chair. He places his hand on the speeder’s identification device.
Subject: Alvaro Gulliento
Age: 18
Access Approved
Auto-pilot to Nova Madrid
The Elders apparently don’t want me screwing around; guess I’ll just kickback in the back seat.
He slips into the back seat, and lies down. He activates the canopy to cover the speeder, and activates the ignition. He feels the speeder jolt, and it goes flying, sending Alvaro slamming against the seats.
Damn! They could have warned me that they REALLY needed me.
He pulls himself up and sits down on the seat. He belts himself in, and watches the city blast by. He notices the streets are utterly empty, and the only activity seems to be coming from workers taking apart the wreckage of a Hessian ship.
The children are obviously here, but the workers, who can they be? They can’t be all women; most of them are already probably fighting the war.
The speeder turns down a road, and he notices the workers’ yellow insignia of an animal on their shoulder.
They’re Cerdos… The Corsairs who didn’t prove themselves worthy…
The Cerdos: Corsairs who were viewed as dishonorable. Maybe they ran away for the initiation, deserted their fellow corsairs, retreated from a mission, or maybe they intentionally killed a fellow Corsair. Whatever the reason, they were sentenced to hard labor for the rest of their lives. Supposedly, they were named after an animal back on Earth.
The speeder blasts down the road out of the city, and adjusts itself to go towards Nova Madrid. Alvaro lies down on the seat, and closes his eyes. He remembers a time when his mother, father, and brother all got leave at the same time. He remembers the good times they had, hiking on the towering mountains, and looking up at the stars. His dream shatters into war fare- ships flying around blasting each other, Corsairs boarding ships, and the alien. He is awakened by a beeping, and he rises himself. He sees Nova Madrid in the distance, but notices something odd. He sees smoke rising from the center of the city, and immediately he fears for the worst.
The smoke looks like it is coming from the Elders’ Palace… What could’ve happened?
He orders the speeder to speed up, and he reaches into his jacket. As he enters the city, he notices the Corsairs stationed in the capital are scrambling madly for the palace. He checks his holster and the speeder for any weapons. All he finds are two pistols.
Damn, this isn’t going to do any good, but I’ll have to deal with it…
Slowly, the palace comes in view, and indeed the fire is coming from it. He notices a large hole on the roof of the palace, and the main door laying in pieces on the floor. His speeder pulls up to the main entrance, and Alvaro jumps out. He notices the bodies of two Corsairs on the ground, but they seem to be alive. He runs up to one of them, and carries him into his speeder. He picks up another and does the same. As he puts them into speeder, one of them starts talking to him.
“Those bastards… they… came in a ship… crashed into the main gate… they shot me and my partner before we could realize what was happening…” said the guard.
“Do you know who they are?” questioned Alvaro.
“I couldn’t see their insignia or their faces… they were armed with heavy armor suits, and they were firing from inside the smoke,” grunted the guard.
The guard pulls out his rifle and hands it to Alvaro, along with his ammo and grenades.
“Please, go and help the Elders. More Corsairs are coming, but I’m afraid it may be too late by the time they reach the palace.”
Alvaro loads his pistol, and the guard watches him. He suddenly realizes who he is.
“Wait, you are Alvaro! Damn, you must’ve just got out of the hospital! I’m sorry that you have to face this after your six month coma!” exclaimed the guard.
“Don’t worry,’ started Alvaro, “This is what I live for, what all the Corsairs live for,”
End Ch. 16
Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:12 pm
A two-fer for those of you interested, hopefully this'll make up for my long absence.
Ch. 17
The Elders’ Palace is a unique building on Crete. Known by many names, the “Elders’ Palace” is just one of the few. Unlike the other buildings made by Corsairs, it is said that parts of the palace was built from pieces of the escape shuttles used by the Corsairs’ ancestors years ago. Most of it is still built by the same material that is used to build the housing on Crete, but it is reminiscent of an architecture that was once used on Earth. Many technologies that have since been considered lost are within the halls of this building. The only part of the palace open to average Corsairs is the council hall. The other parts are only open to the Elders themselves or the higher ups in the Corsair hierarchy.
“Sir, the team has landed.”
“What’s their status?”
”Landing was easy they say, but they are meeting stiff resistance.”
“Any casualties?”
“Yes, one of ours has been killed, and the defenders have yet to suffer any casualties themselves.”
“These guys are really stubborn aren’t they? But we were briefed that these guys are very experienced, and hopefully our men will achieve their objectives.”
Alvaro rushes down the hall, maneuvering past the debris on the floor. He reaches the council hall and notices that there was a struggle; blast marks are all over the room, and the table is chipped. A massive hole is in the ceiling, wide open to the sky.
Looks like someone misfired something, a grenade or something, but that’s going to take a while to repair...
He notices four other hallways leading away from the chamber. One of the halls are blocked with rubble, but he hears noises coming down from another hallway. He sees that there are more scorch marks on the wall. He loads his rifle, and proceeds carefully down the hall. He turns a corner, and sees two of the invaders fighting 3 Corsairs. Alvaro goes against the wall, and pokes his head out. Just as he does so, he sees one of the invaders get hit in the head, sending blood splattering on the wall. Alvaro jumps the corner and unloads his rifle into the other man, still shocked at his comrade’s death. He falls over into the wall, and Alvaro goes over to the body and checks his chest plate. He sees a star, and recognizes them instantly.
Libertarians? What are they doing here?
“Comrades, don’t fire! I’m a fellow Corsair!” yells Alvaro.
The three Corsairs come out of their hiding spots and proceed towards Alvaro. One of them speaks to Alvaro.
“I recognize you, you’re Alvaro… We were supposed to escort you to the Elders, but obviously we couldn’t do that…” said one of the men.
“Unfortunate, I was looking forward to an easy day” signed Alvaro, “Do you know how many of the Libertarians..?”
“These guys are from Liberty?” said another one of the Corsairs.
“Yes, how many were there?” asked Alvaro.
“I think ten… They came storming into the hall, but luckily the Elders were in the depths of the palace by then. They caught all of us by surprise, and the fighting started. Most of them went down into the Moor hall, and then something came through the roof. One of the corsairs thought it was a walker of some sort, but by the time we realized that something hit the roof, we couldn’t see anything. The impact caused the rubble from the ceiling to crash and block that hallway, cutting off seven of their men and all of our elite guard. One of the libertarians got crushed by the rubble. These two were cut off with us, and well, the fighting spilled over into the “Los Reyes” hall.”
The other corsair interrupts, and pushes the other one out of the way.
”That doesn’t matter, what does matter is that we got seven of those guys in our home, and the Elders are in danger. We are going to have to go through this hall into the archives and in the Hall of Heroes ‘till we reach the Elders’ private briefing rooms...”
The other Corsair whispers something to the Corsair speaking, which causes him to pause.
“I know… I know… but, I think they’ll make an exception”
“Look, Alvaro, ordinarily you aren’t allowed to even go this far in this building, but I think the Elders will make an exception for you.”
“My name is Ricardo,” he starts, “This man next to me is Diego, and the guy over there is Marcos”
“Let’s get a move on. If we wait any longer, it may be too late. Here, take this Alvaro, some grenades and one sticky…” said Marcos.
The four rush down the hall and Alvaro takes note of the odd artifacts in display cases lined up on the walls.
They don’t seem alien, and yet I’ve never seen any trace of these things from any of the folk in Sirius…
Alvaro notices a flash of light ahead, and soon the light blinds him. As his eyes adjust, he sees a massive room, lined with stained glass and rows of shelves. He sees that the other Corsairs are ahead of him, and he picks up his pace. He looks at the shelves, and sees strange objects filling them. He goes up to Ricardo and asks him as to what they are.
“What are those things in those shelves? I’ve never seen them before,” asked Alvaro.
“Those things are an archaic form of books, using resources that were abundant on earth,” started Ricardo, “It’s said that one of our ancestors had a large collection of these, which were still considered antiquities even back then. The Elders preserved those and keep them in this room, the Archives.”
They pass out of the archives and enter a curving hall, which seems to go on forever.
“We’re about to enter an antechamber where the Moor and Los Reyes halls merge, leading to the El Cid walkway, which leads to “But something ain’t right here… I can’t hear any of the fighting!”
“That’s odd, there’s no way they could’ve entered the El Cid Way…, that door leading that way is nearly unbreakable!” exclaimed Marcos.
They enter the antechamber leading to the El Cid Way, and indeed no one is there, though signs of fighting are present. The antechamber is littered with chunks of rocks and scorch marks. Alvaro walks over to a chunk of rock and picks it up and examines it. He sees a face, and turns behind him to see a blasted bust. He sets it on the ground next to the bust, and turns around. He sees a massive metal door reaching from the ground to the ceiling, but a hole covers much of the lower half. Diego runs over to it and examines the edges of the hole.
“These guys are packing some serious firepower…” he starts, “This could’ve really only been done with a vehicular mounted RPG, and yet I don’t recall them ever bringing one with them!”
“Be weary!” warned Ricardo, “I have a feeling they may be using one of those new stealth walkers… I pray that our comrades were able to hold off against it…”
They go through the hole into the hallway, and sprint furiously through it. Alvaro notices the bodies of two Corsairs ahead, and the walls near them covered in blood. As he passes it though, he notices it was in fact the same person, torn cruelly into two pieces.
Damn, their walker must have some deadly melee capabilities…
As they continue, they pass even more bodies, and eventually they hear noises.
“Damn, those guys are supposed to be backwater pirates! They took down four of our guys all the way here! They didn’t brief us that there would be this kind of resistance!”
“Thank God we had that walker; They would’ve killed us all without it…”
“How will we know that we get the right guys?”
“They wear priestly robes, and even if they ditched those, you can tell by their outwardly appearance… they are like the black sheep of the Corsairs.”
The Corsairs reach the end of the hallway and get behind a statue that lies in front of the exit of the hallway. Alvaro hears a click, and sees Ricardo unhook a wire from his suit. He moves it over to the edge of the statue, and flips open a console on his wrist. He punches some commands in, and wirelessly moves the camera. The image of the vast room appears, and Ricardo zooms in on the three Libertarians. Alvaro sees two of the men guarding the other, who seems to be setting something at the door.
“Do you see the walker?” asked Alvaro.
“No… but at the moment I say we kill those guys before they can blow in the door… They probably won’t hesitate to kill the Elders if they know they are cornered…”
Alvaro feels something dripping on his shoulder, and looks at the red spots accumulating on it.
Strange, I don’t even recall getting shot…
He looks up, and sees an impaled Corsair body looming above him. His eyes swell up with fear, and he starts running. Ricardo yells out to him
“Alvaro, what the…?!!”
He never had a chance to finish that sentence. A loud noise fills the hall, and a two legged walker appears above the statue, with an impaled Corsair on one of his arms, and fires a barrage of bullets down on him. In a matter of seconds, he is but a headless corpse. Diego and Marcos run as well, but now the three Libertarians notice their presence.
“We got hostiles… Fire at will!”
Alvaro runs furiously to a statue in the room, and looks over his shoulder, and catches sight of the walker turning towards him. It tosses the corpse off its arm, and Alvaro sees one of its arms rotating. He hears a noise, and realizes what it is. He leaps and dives behind the statue as a rocket slams into the nearby wall. He covers his face, shielding himself from the shrapnel. As he recovers, he hears the walker moving towards him, and a loud whirring noise fills his head. He reaches into his pack and pulls out the sticky grenade. As he does so, the walker the statue in half, and goes right towards Alvaro. Alvaro ducks down as the walker’s saw blade goes towards him and slams into the wall. He goes around the statue and goes in between the walker’s legs, throwing the sticky grenade as he does so. The walker begins firing bullets as Alvaro runs, but can’t turn far enough to get him. The bullets stop, but he sees a Libertarian in front of him, aiming his rifle. He pulls his rifle out and fires at the libertarian in front of him, who shoots him as well. The shot hits Alvaro in the shoulder, but the Libertarian gets hit in the chest. The Libertarian falls on the ground, and his blood spills out into marble floor. Alvaro doesn’t take notice, and runs for the pillar near the door. He pokes his head out, and sees the walker, seemingly in one piece, yet moving like an injured bull.
Damn, I thought that explosion would’ve at least destroyed it…
He looks around for Diego and Marcos, and spots them behind another pillar, in a shootout with the two remaining Libertarians. He feels a surge of pain on his back, and throws himself off the pillar. He sees the blood tipped saw blade cut the pillar clean, and sees the walker go towards him. It pauses in front of him, and looks down on him. He hears a noise come from it.
“Sorry kid, end of the line for you! Libertarians are the best of the best!”
He watches the walker as it positions one of its feet above him, and Alvaro knows the worst is to happen.
Sure, they needed a freaking walker to beat us…
He suddenly sees an explosion erupt on the side of the walker, causing it to lean over and slam into a nearby pillar. Alvaro sees a rocket stream towards the walker, knocking it over into a pile of rubble. He takes a sigh of relief, and sees that the other two Libertarians are dead as well. He sees Diego and Marcos walk towards a large group of Corsairs. Alvaro pulls out his pistol, and clicks off the safety. He walks towards the fallen walker, and sees the pilot struggling out. He grabs the pilot and pulls him up to his knees. Alvaro points his pistol right at the man’s head.
“Please! Don’t shoot me! I was just following orders! I have a family! Please!”
Alvaro ignores his pleas, and pulls the trigger. Though in a matter of seconds, it seemed to last an hour. The man’s face turning cold, frozen with terror, and the laser penetrated his skull into his brain, sending a splash of blood out. The Corsairs at the other end of the hall fall silent and the man falls to the ground, creating a deafening thud. Alvaro, realizing what he had down, drops his pistol and falls to his knees, looking at the dead man.
What have I done…? He was beginning for my mercy, and I killed him in cold blood… I’m not human…
He lets out an agonizing scream, and falls back onto the wall, and buries his face in his knees.
Why couldn’t I have an ordinary childhood? Already, I’ve killed more people in just my childhood than most people ever will…
End Ch. 17
Edited by - MercZ on 8/1/2006 4:30:09 PM
Ch. 17
The Elders’ Palace is a unique building on Crete. Known by many names, the “Elders’ Palace” is just one of the few. Unlike the other buildings made by Corsairs, it is said that parts of the palace was built from pieces of the escape shuttles used by the Corsairs’ ancestors years ago. Most of it is still built by the same material that is used to build the housing on Crete, but it is reminiscent of an architecture that was once used on Earth. Many technologies that have since been considered lost are within the halls of this building. The only part of the palace open to average Corsairs is the council hall. The other parts are only open to the Elders themselves or the higher ups in the Corsair hierarchy.
“Sir, the team has landed.”
“What’s their status?”
”Landing was easy they say, but they are meeting stiff resistance.”
“Any casualties?”
“Yes, one of ours has been killed, and the defenders have yet to suffer any casualties themselves.”
“These guys are really stubborn aren’t they? But we were briefed that these guys are very experienced, and hopefully our men will achieve their objectives.”
Alvaro rushes down the hall, maneuvering past the debris on the floor. He reaches the council hall and notices that there was a struggle; blast marks are all over the room, and the table is chipped. A massive hole is in the ceiling, wide open to the sky.
Looks like someone misfired something, a grenade or something, but that’s going to take a while to repair...
He notices four other hallways leading away from the chamber. One of the halls are blocked with rubble, but he hears noises coming down from another hallway. He sees that there are more scorch marks on the wall. He loads his rifle, and proceeds carefully down the hall. He turns a corner, and sees two of the invaders fighting 3 Corsairs. Alvaro goes against the wall, and pokes his head out. Just as he does so, he sees one of the invaders get hit in the head, sending blood splattering on the wall. Alvaro jumps the corner and unloads his rifle into the other man, still shocked at his comrade’s death. He falls over into the wall, and Alvaro goes over to the body and checks his chest plate. He sees a star, and recognizes them instantly.
Libertarians? What are they doing here?
“Comrades, don’t fire! I’m a fellow Corsair!” yells Alvaro.
The three Corsairs come out of their hiding spots and proceed towards Alvaro. One of them speaks to Alvaro.
“I recognize you, you’re Alvaro… We were supposed to escort you to the Elders, but obviously we couldn’t do that…” said one of the men.
“Unfortunate, I was looking forward to an easy day” signed Alvaro, “Do you know how many of the Libertarians..?”
“These guys are from Liberty?” said another one of the Corsairs.
“Yes, how many were there?” asked Alvaro.
“I think ten… They came storming into the hall, but luckily the Elders were in the depths of the palace by then. They caught all of us by surprise, and the fighting started. Most of them went down into the Moor hall, and then something came through the roof. One of the corsairs thought it was a walker of some sort, but by the time we realized that something hit the roof, we couldn’t see anything. The impact caused the rubble from the ceiling to crash and block that hallway, cutting off seven of their men and all of our elite guard. One of the libertarians got crushed by the rubble. These two were cut off with us, and well, the fighting spilled over into the “Los Reyes” hall.”
The other corsair interrupts, and pushes the other one out of the way.
”That doesn’t matter, what does matter is that we got seven of those guys in our home, and the Elders are in danger. We are going to have to go through this hall into the archives and in the Hall of Heroes ‘till we reach the Elders’ private briefing rooms...”
The other Corsair whispers something to the Corsair speaking, which causes him to pause.
“I know… I know… but, I think they’ll make an exception”
“Look, Alvaro, ordinarily you aren’t allowed to even go this far in this building, but I think the Elders will make an exception for you.”
“My name is Ricardo,” he starts, “This man next to me is Diego, and the guy over there is Marcos”
“Let’s get a move on. If we wait any longer, it may be too late. Here, take this Alvaro, some grenades and one sticky…” said Marcos.
The four rush down the hall and Alvaro takes note of the odd artifacts in display cases lined up on the walls.
They don’t seem alien, and yet I’ve never seen any trace of these things from any of the folk in Sirius…
Alvaro notices a flash of light ahead, and soon the light blinds him. As his eyes adjust, he sees a massive room, lined with stained glass and rows of shelves. He sees that the other Corsairs are ahead of him, and he picks up his pace. He looks at the shelves, and sees strange objects filling them. He goes up to Ricardo and asks him as to what they are.
“What are those things in those shelves? I’ve never seen them before,” asked Alvaro.
“Those things are an archaic form of books, using resources that were abundant on earth,” started Ricardo, “It’s said that one of our ancestors had a large collection of these, which were still considered antiquities even back then. The Elders preserved those and keep them in this room, the Archives.”
They pass out of the archives and enter a curving hall, which seems to go on forever.
“We’re about to enter an antechamber where the Moor and Los Reyes halls merge, leading to the El Cid walkway, which leads to “But something ain’t right here… I can’t hear any of the fighting!”
“That’s odd, there’s no way they could’ve entered the El Cid Way…, that door leading that way is nearly unbreakable!” exclaimed Marcos.
They enter the antechamber leading to the El Cid Way, and indeed no one is there, though signs of fighting are present. The antechamber is littered with chunks of rocks and scorch marks. Alvaro walks over to a chunk of rock and picks it up and examines it. He sees a face, and turns behind him to see a blasted bust. He sets it on the ground next to the bust, and turns around. He sees a massive metal door reaching from the ground to the ceiling, but a hole covers much of the lower half. Diego runs over to it and examines the edges of the hole.
“These guys are packing some serious firepower…” he starts, “This could’ve really only been done with a vehicular mounted RPG, and yet I don’t recall them ever bringing one with them!”
“Be weary!” warned Ricardo, “I have a feeling they may be using one of those new stealth walkers… I pray that our comrades were able to hold off against it…”
They go through the hole into the hallway, and sprint furiously through it. Alvaro notices the bodies of two Corsairs ahead, and the walls near them covered in blood. As he passes it though, he notices it was in fact the same person, torn cruelly into two pieces.
Damn, their walker must have some deadly melee capabilities…
As they continue, they pass even more bodies, and eventually they hear noises.
“Damn, those guys are supposed to be backwater pirates! They took down four of our guys all the way here! They didn’t brief us that there would be this kind of resistance!”
“Thank God we had that walker; They would’ve killed us all without it…”
“How will we know that we get the right guys?”
“They wear priestly robes, and even if they ditched those, you can tell by their outwardly appearance… they are like the black sheep of the Corsairs.”
The Corsairs reach the end of the hallway and get behind a statue that lies in front of the exit of the hallway. Alvaro hears a click, and sees Ricardo unhook a wire from his suit. He moves it over to the edge of the statue, and flips open a console on his wrist. He punches some commands in, and wirelessly moves the camera. The image of the vast room appears, and Ricardo zooms in on the three Libertarians. Alvaro sees two of the men guarding the other, who seems to be setting something at the door.
“Do you see the walker?” asked Alvaro.
“No… but at the moment I say we kill those guys before they can blow in the door… They probably won’t hesitate to kill the Elders if they know they are cornered…”
Alvaro feels something dripping on his shoulder, and looks at the red spots accumulating on it.
Strange, I don’t even recall getting shot…
He looks up, and sees an impaled Corsair body looming above him. His eyes swell up with fear, and he starts running. Ricardo yells out to him
“Alvaro, what the…?!!”
He never had a chance to finish that sentence. A loud noise fills the hall, and a two legged walker appears above the statue, with an impaled Corsair on one of his arms, and fires a barrage of bullets down on him. In a matter of seconds, he is but a headless corpse. Diego and Marcos run as well, but now the three Libertarians notice their presence.
“We got hostiles… Fire at will!”
Alvaro runs furiously to a statue in the room, and looks over his shoulder, and catches sight of the walker turning towards him. It tosses the corpse off its arm, and Alvaro sees one of its arms rotating. He hears a noise, and realizes what it is. He leaps and dives behind the statue as a rocket slams into the nearby wall. He covers his face, shielding himself from the shrapnel. As he recovers, he hears the walker moving towards him, and a loud whirring noise fills his head. He reaches into his pack and pulls out the sticky grenade. As he does so, the walker the statue in half, and goes right towards Alvaro. Alvaro ducks down as the walker’s saw blade goes towards him and slams into the wall. He goes around the statue and goes in between the walker’s legs, throwing the sticky grenade as he does so. The walker begins firing bullets as Alvaro runs, but can’t turn far enough to get him. The bullets stop, but he sees a Libertarian in front of him, aiming his rifle. He pulls his rifle out and fires at the libertarian in front of him, who shoots him as well. The shot hits Alvaro in the shoulder, but the Libertarian gets hit in the chest. The Libertarian falls on the ground, and his blood spills out into marble floor. Alvaro doesn’t take notice, and runs for the pillar near the door. He pokes his head out, and sees the walker, seemingly in one piece, yet moving like an injured bull.
Damn, I thought that explosion would’ve at least destroyed it…
He looks around for Diego and Marcos, and spots them behind another pillar, in a shootout with the two remaining Libertarians. He feels a surge of pain on his back, and throws himself off the pillar. He sees the blood tipped saw blade cut the pillar clean, and sees the walker go towards him. It pauses in front of him, and looks down on him. He hears a noise come from it.
“Sorry kid, end of the line for you! Libertarians are the best of the best!”
He watches the walker as it positions one of its feet above him, and Alvaro knows the worst is to happen.
Sure, they needed a freaking walker to beat us…
He suddenly sees an explosion erupt on the side of the walker, causing it to lean over and slam into a nearby pillar. Alvaro sees a rocket stream towards the walker, knocking it over into a pile of rubble. He takes a sigh of relief, and sees that the other two Libertarians are dead as well. He sees Diego and Marcos walk towards a large group of Corsairs. Alvaro pulls out his pistol, and clicks off the safety. He walks towards the fallen walker, and sees the pilot struggling out. He grabs the pilot and pulls him up to his knees. Alvaro points his pistol right at the man’s head.
“Please! Don’t shoot me! I was just following orders! I have a family! Please!”
Alvaro ignores his pleas, and pulls the trigger. Though in a matter of seconds, it seemed to last an hour. The man’s face turning cold, frozen with terror, and the laser penetrated his skull into his brain, sending a splash of blood out. The Corsairs at the other end of the hall fall silent and the man falls to the ground, creating a deafening thud. Alvaro, realizing what he had down, drops his pistol and falls to his knees, looking at the dead man.
What have I done…? He was beginning for my mercy, and I killed him in cold blood… I’m not human…
He lets out an agonizing scream, and falls back onto the wall, and buries his face in his knees.
Why couldn’t I have an ordinary childhood? Already, I’ve killed more people in just my childhood than most people ever will…
End Ch. 17
Edited by - MercZ on 8/1/2006 4:30:09 PM
Sat Jul 29, 2006 2:16 pm
Ch. 18
“Status report on the strike team?”
“We’ve lost contact with them. I’ve tried all the frequencies, and they aren’t coming in”
“Odd…”
“Sir! We’ve just received some imagery from the walker… you’d better take a look”
….
“Wait, freeze there... Can you get a zoom on the kid holding the pistol?”
“Excellent, give the clip of the execution to the news stations… They need to wet their beaks”
“How should we explain it to them?”
“Say it is video sent from them of an execution of a captured pilot”
“Anything else?”
“Yea, make sure you emphasize how young the kid is in the video. No doubt, this’ll make them look like barbarians”
“Sir, I’m trying to file death papers on the soldiers, and I can’t find any information about them, relatives, blood type, nothing! Is their information on another drive?”
“As far as we are concerned, they never existed”
Alvaro shudders in the corner, holding his blood soaked hands to his head. He slumps back against the cool stone wall, and cries out in pain. Two corsairs notice him.
“He must’ve been the one who killed that guy… Well at least we know he can kill outside a ship”
“We’d better calm him down. I doubt he’d be in that must pain”
The two corsairs walk over to Alvaro and lift him to his feet. As they do so, they notice a knife jammed into Alvaro’s abdomen.
“Holy ****… We need a medic!”
…
Alvaro slowly opens his eyes, and all he can see is a dark wall. Slowly, as his eyes adjust, he spots a door on a wall. He sees a small opening, probably a window, but closed. He feels around him, and sees that he is in a bed. He stumbles out of bed, and slams into something. He hears the sound of metal hitting the floor. He freezes, and he hears the door turning. He hears some footsteps, the door swinging open, and then the sound of a switch. Alvaro’s eye starts burning, and he shields himself. Slowly, he sees the bright room, and two men standing in front of him. They help him up and guide him towards the door.
“Well, you woke up much earlier then we thought”
“What happened?” asks Alvaro.
“Well, when you put that bullet in that guy’s head, he also stabbed you, pretty deeply I might add! Luckily, it missed your vital organs.”
“Get freshened up, the Elders demand your presence”, the other Corsair cuts in.
After getting cleaned up, the two corsairs escort Alvaro to a waiting hover car. They zoom through the streets of the capital, towards the palace. Alvaro notices how empty the city is- not even a single child to be seen. Soon, they pull up to the steps in front of the palace, and guide him towards the gates. He sees that the door is still broken, though with the addition of workers hurrying to fix it. He passes through, and they lead him into the main hallway until they reach a door. Alvaro continues walking, but notices the other two stop.
“Sir, go through the door there, and you’ll find the Elders and military already in session. The Elders specifically requested you. We can’t come in.”
Alvaro nods and bids farewell. He goes up to the door, and opens it slowly. He can already hear the sounds of a heated debate. He slides is way in and sees an illuminated table in the middle, seated with the robed Elders and the uniformed military leaders.
“What if the Liberty Navy recruits the Hessians? They’ll be happy to go and kill some of us!”
“Absurd! The Hessians have been a thorn in the mining operations in Rheinland, which Liberty has some holdings in. Their elite won’t want that. Plus, you just can’t trust renegades like them”
“Well he brings up a potential issue. Maybe we should try and find some to ally ourselves with!”
“In case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t too well liked in this damn world. Maybe they don’t all “hate” us, but I doubt any support us! Plus, the only group we have contact with are the Zoners, and they’ve sworn off the civilized world. And I doubt the Outcasts would unite with us”
“Bah! I’d rather that those Zoners ally themselves with Liberty. Then we can have an excuse to blow those ignorant f*#$@ out of the area, and take the agriculture tech they have!”
“Hold your tongue captain, the last thing we need is every colony news station to make us look like cold blooded killers!”
“We can be sure that they’ve enlisted the aid of the Bounty Hunters, and they’re probably using Freeport 9 as a base. We can’t allow that! We’re already having reports of large skirmishes between our patrols and small Bounty Hunter raiding parties.”
“The Bounty Hunters won’t stay in long. They’ll probably pull out once they start losing men. Plus, sometimes they might run into some… trouble when they come through the wormhole”
“When it comes to money, the Bounty Hunters don’t care!”
“Are you forgetting that Elder Garcia is there trying to negotiate with the Zoners for the agri-tech? If we try to blow that station up, they’ll probably kill him, or even worse, take him hostage!”
One of the hooded Elders raises his hand, and motions the rest of the council to stop.
“Silence! Our guest has arrived. Take a seat Lieutenant!” He motions to Alvaro to take a seat separate from the council table. One of the generals stands up, and asks Alvaro a question.
“Lieutenant, what ever happened with you and that thing you encountered, it has led us to this. Care to explain to us EXACTLY what happened? All we know that you were muttering something about an alien, then you went unconscious. Since then, we’ve been having conflicts with the Libertarians! You’d better have a reasonable explanation!”
Alvaro looks at him with a flare in his eye.
“I will tell you sir, but I can’t seem to understand why you are so hostile. I didn’t start this conflict…”
“Boy, I don’t give a ****. Tell me now!”
“Alright, alright. But I fear if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
Alvaro sighs, and starts his story.
“During our war with the Hessians, I was in an attack force on their “Flag ship”. I was shortly separated from the main strike force. When I made my way to the bridge, I found the strike force dead, and my mentor wounded. I found the main Hessian commander possessed by something. I don’t need to get into the details about the fight, but he clearly told me about his plans, and about how it manipulated the Hessians into war with us as a façade to accomplish its plans- opening a rift to “free” its race. What happened afterwards until I landed on the surface Elder Ferdinand has probably told you already. When I landed on the surface, I found that the alien had abandoned its host and proceeded into one of the ruins. With an artifact he… found, he opened a secret passage way. A fight ensued, and he made his way to the device which would open the rift. I was able to knock him in there, but unknowingly to me, it caused some sort of power overload, and released the energy into the sky. And I guess that’s the source of the beam”
“Odd…” sighs one of the Elders, “If we only had that weapon when our ancestors landed here ages ago, we could’ve reaped off the Sirius Sector instead of being confined to hell… And it’s been below our feet the whole time!”
“Forgive me Elder, but it wasn’t a weapon, it was meant some sort of transportation device. But what ever happened, the power must’ve been rerouted as a highly charged beam.”
“Indeed”, says Elder Ferdinand, “But with some work, this technology can be turned into a very destructive weapon… Just like how our ancestors turned gunpowder from a fuel for explosives to a weapon of war.”
The rest of the council nods.
“Indeed, if Liberty got their hands on such tech, it could easily tip the balance of power in their favor. Serve as both a deterrence and effective weapon of war!” comments one of the generals.
Another general cuts in.
“Yes! We should use the weapon ourselves, and destroy them! Then the whole Sirius Sector will acknowledge our presence and self-determination!”
“Yea, and if we use the cannon and wipe out the Liberty fleet, the rest of the galaxy will probably join together and attack us as well! We may have this “weapon”, but we certainly don’t have the fleet to cover it!”
“We certainly do seem to be in a sticky situation”, comments one of the generals. “Computer, open up program “L-Fleet 5” on the holographic display on the council table- initiate!”
“Opening file L-Fleet 5, stand by…”
The room dims, and the middle of the council table opens up, revealing a device. It shoots up a map of the Sirius Sector, dotted with pictures of ships and words. The general stands up, and begins introducing the conflict.
“Shortly after our war with the Hessians and that energy burst, Liberty declared war on the Corsairs. Bretonia, though they hate us, weren’t able to join due to an escalating Molly situation, but have allowed Liberty access to their space. Kusari couldn’t join due to the fact Rheinland destroyed a good amount of their forces in the previous war. Rheinland is allowing Liberty to use their space for moving the ships in exchange for aid in fighting the crime and materials for rebuilding the Rheinland Military, but once again they aren’t able to join due to a collapsed military infrastructure.”
He pushes a button, and the map zooms into the lower-right of the map. He points out two large clusters of ships.
“These ships here are two groups of the Liberty Expeditionary Assault Fleet. Alpha, seen here in Cambridge, have been launching attacks into Omega-5, and sending some strike forces into Omega-3 then into Omega-5. Beta is stationed in Omega-7 and is sending some forces into Omega-5 on the other end, and some are doing raids on our stations Omega-41. We have the protection of the radiation in Omega-11 and Omega-41 to slow their advance, but they’ll eventually come together at Omicron Gamma.”
He clicks another button, and zooms into Omega-5.
“After our war with the Hessians, we were planning to strike at their bases in the surrounding sectors, then eventually at Vogtland at Dresden, but this conflict has delayed their eventual destruction. We have this cloud of radiation from the remains of their old station, but it is beginning to clear up. We’ve had reports of escalating attacks from Liberty fighters, mainly hit and run. We have yet to see their battleships coming in, but we believe the strike ships they are sending in are probably acting as both raiders and mine clearers. We’ve seen them clearing the mines and destroying large asteroids, more than likely to clear a path for the battleships. Now for those of you wondering how much of a chance we’ll have fighting their fleet, it’s slim. Their battleships are far larger than the ones the Hessians were using- Their secondary ships are probably about the size of the Hessians’ main ship, possibly larger. We can have a chance of bringing some of them down- I’ve heard rumors of the Blood Dragons being able to take down some Rheinland ships during the war, but I doubt we’ll be able to take the whole damn thing down.”
He zooms into Omicron Gamma and Omega-41. Some areas show large areas of blue and red.
“We are going to plant mines, radiation explosives, dummy fighters loaded with explosives, EMP devices, and many more, to try and hamper their advance and to take down as many ships as we can. We are going to form a line of defense in three wings, each headed by one of our three starships. The fighters are going to be loaded with some of our best weaponry, power cores, shields, and engines. Some of the fighters will be loaded with torpedoes and EMP missiles to try and fry the battleship shields. The battleship in each wing will act as the destroyer and hang to the rear covered by a wing of fighters. We’ve also turned Trafalgar into a weapons platform for long range defense. What happens after that is left to destiny and chance.”
One of the other generals stands up, and pushes another button.
“Loading Defense-1”
A hologram of the planet appears, and the general begins speaking.
“We’ve also begun a planetary defense and ground force. All the children and elderly have been evacuated away from the large cities into smaller settlements, mountains, and underground settlements. EMP cannons and planetary defense cannons have been set up around the planet’s surface. When the Liberty Navy manages to break through our forces, we will send them to the planet’s surface to participate in the defense. The rest of the ships that can’t manage it will head into Omicron Theta, along with some of our civilians, and the Elders…”
Elder Ferdinand interrupts.
”There is no way in hell I’m going to leave. Send the real “Elders”, but I’m still young enough and capable of warfare!”
“But Elder, please! You need to head the resistance and keep our people together in our eventful exile.”
“I don’t care, I’m going to fight with my fellow Corsairs, and let them know that we are all in this together! It’ll help morale!”
The general sighs.
“Very well, you can stay here and go onboard the Hispania, and coordinate the Nervión and Tejo.”
He turns towards Alvaro.
“And you, Lieutenant, you’ll lead one of the main wings. I trust your abilities. You’ll be briefed when you get to the LZ.”
One of the Elders stands up.
“Dis…”
“Sir!”
A Corsair rushes into the room, short of breath.
“Sir…”
“I told you guys not to interrupt during meetings!”
“Sir, this is urgent! Computer, run the recent transmission!”
The hologram shoots up the image of a distressed Corsair, with a view to space behind him.
“This is…. Cadiz… We’re…. they’ve boarded… casualti…forces retreating… they’re coming…”
Alvaro can see the debris of ships floating in the space behind him, and spots battleships in the distance. Suddenly, two soldiers come in, and the captain pulls out his pistol, but too late- one of the soldiers lands a shot right in his face, sending him flying backwards. The feed turns dark.
“We received this transmission an hour ago, and we were only able to get that much audio fixed!”
“Damn!” yells one of the generals, they’ve come quicker than we thought! To the war room! Send a transmission to the surrounding forces to initiate the defense protocols!”
“Alvaro, come with me”, says Elder Ferdinand, “All the rest of you, dismissed, Long live the Corsairs! I hope to see you again, at least on the living plane…”
End Ch. 18
Edited by - MercZ on 8/7/2006 12:27:50 PM
Edited by - MercZ on 8/7/2006 12:30:20 PM
“Status report on the strike team?”
“We’ve lost contact with them. I’ve tried all the frequencies, and they aren’t coming in”
“Odd…”
“Sir! We’ve just received some imagery from the walker… you’d better take a look”
….
“Wait, freeze there... Can you get a zoom on the kid holding the pistol?”
“Excellent, give the clip of the execution to the news stations… They need to wet their beaks”
“How should we explain it to them?”
“Say it is video sent from them of an execution of a captured pilot”
“Anything else?”
“Yea, make sure you emphasize how young the kid is in the video. No doubt, this’ll make them look like barbarians”
“Sir, I’m trying to file death papers on the soldiers, and I can’t find any information about them, relatives, blood type, nothing! Is their information on another drive?”
“As far as we are concerned, they never existed”
Alvaro shudders in the corner, holding his blood soaked hands to his head. He slumps back against the cool stone wall, and cries out in pain. Two corsairs notice him.
“He must’ve been the one who killed that guy… Well at least we know he can kill outside a ship”
“We’d better calm him down. I doubt he’d be in that must pain”
The two corsairs walk over to Alvaro and lift him to his feet. As they do so, they notice a knife jammed into Alvaro’s abdomen.
“Holy ****… We need a medic!”
…
Alvaro slowly opens his eyes, and all he can see is a dark wall. Slowly, as his eyes adjust, he spots a door on a wall. He sees a small opening, probably a window, but closed. He feels around him, and sees that he is in a bed. He stumbles out of bed, and slams into something. He hears the sound of metal hitting the floor. He freezes, and he hears the door turning. He hears some footsteps, the door swinging open, and then the sound of a switch. Alvaro’s eye starts burning, and he shields himself. Slowly, he sees the bright room, and two men standing in front of him. They help him up and guide him towards the door.
“Well, you woke up much earlier then we thought”
“What happened?” asks Alvaro.
“Well, when you put that bullet in that guy’s head, he also stabbed you, pretty deeply I might add! Luckily, it missed your vital organs.”
“Get freshened up, the Elders demand your presence”, the other Corsair cuts in.
After getting cleaned up, the two corsairs escort Alvaro to a waiting hover car. They zoom through the streets of the capital, towards the palace. Alvaro notices how empty the city is- not even a single child to be seen. Soon, they pull up to the steps in front of the palace, and guide him towards the gates. He sees that the door is still broken, though with the addition of workers hurrying to fix it. He passes through, and they lead him into the main hallway until they reach a door. Alvaro continues walking, but notices the other two stop.
“Sir, go through the door there, and you’ll find the Elders and military already in session. The Elders specifically requested you. We can’t come in.”
Alvaro nods and bids farewell. He goes up to the door, and opens it slowly. He can already hear the sounds of a heated debate. He slides is way in and sees an illuminated table in the middle, seated with the robed Elders and the uniformed military leaders.
“What if the Liberty Navy recruits the Hessians? They’ll be happy to go and kill some of us!”
“Absurd! The Hessians have been a thorn in the mining operations in Rheinland, which Liberty has some holdings in. Their elite won’t want that. Plus, you just can’t trust renegades like them”
“Well he brings up a potential issue. Maybe we should try and find some to ally ourselves with!”
“In case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t too well liked in this damn world. Maybe they don’t all “hate” us, but I doubt any support us! Plus, the only group we have contact with are the Zoners, and they’ve sworn off the civilized world. And I doubt the Outcasts would unite with us”
“Bah! I’d rather that those Zoners ally themselves with Liberty. Then we can have an excuse to blow those ignorant f*#$@ out of the area, and take the agriculture tech they have!”
“Hold your tongue captain, the last thing we need is every colony news station to make us look like cold blooded killers!”
“We can be sure that they’ve enlisted the aid of the Bounty Hunters, and they’re probably using Freeport 9 as a base. We can’t allow that! We’re already having reports of large skirmishes between our patrols and small Bounty Hunter raiding parties.”
“The Bounty Hunters won’t stay in long. They’ll probably pull out once they start losing men. Plus, sometimes they might run into some… trouble when they come through the wormhole”
“When it comes to money, the Bounty Hunters don’t care!”
“Are you forgetting that Elder Garcia is there trying to negotiate with the Zoners for the agri-tech? If we try to blow that station up, they’ll probably kill him, or even worse, take him hostage!”
One of the hooded Elders raises his hand, and motions the rest of the council to stop.
“Silence! Our guest has arrived. Take a seat Lieutenant!” He motions to Alvaro to take a seat separate from the council table. One of the generals stands up, and asks Alvaro a question.
“Lieutenant, what ever happened with you and that thing you encountered, it has led us to this. Care to explain to us EXACTLY what happened? All we know that you were muttering something about an alien, then you went unconscious. Since then, we’ve been having conflicts with the Libertarians! You’d better have a reasonable explanation!”
Alvaro looks at him with a flare in his eye.
“I will tell you sir, but I can’t seem to understand why you are so hostile. I didn’t start this conflict…”
“Boy, I don’t give a ****. Tell me now!”
“Alright, alright. But I fear if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
Alvaro sighs, and starts his story.
“During our war with the Hessians, I was in an attack force on their “Flag ship”. I was shortly separated from the main strike force. When I made my way to the bridge, I found the strike force dead, and my mentor wounded. I found the main Hessian commander possessed by something. I don’t need to get into the details about the fight, but he clearly told me about his plans, and about how it manipulated the Hessians into war with us as a façade to accomplish its plans- opening a rift to “free” its race. What happened afterwards until I landed on the surface Elder Ferdinand has probably told you already. When I landed on the surface, I found that the alien had abandoned its host and proceeded into one of the ruins. With an artifact he… found, he opened a secret passage way. A fight ensued, and he made his way to the device which would open the rift. I was able to knock him in there, but unknowingly to me, it caused some sort of power overload, and released the energy into the sky. And I guess that’s the source of the beam”
“Odd…” sighs one of the Elders, “If we only had that weapon when our ancestors landed here ages ago, we could’ve reaped off the Sirius Sector instead of being confined to hell… And it’s been below our feet the whole time!”
“Forgive me Elder, but it wasn’t a weapon, it was meant some sort of transportation device. But what ever happened, the power must’ve been rerouted as a highly charged beam.”
“Indeed”, says Elder Ferdinand, “But with some work, this technology can be turned into a very destructive weapon… Just like how our ancestors turned gunpowder from a fuel for explosives to a weapon of war.”
The rest of the council nods.
“Indeed, if Liberty got their hands on such tech, it could easily tip the balance of power in their favor. Serve as both a deterrence and effective weapon of war!” comments one of the generals.
Another general cuts in.
“Yes! We should use the weapon ourselves, and destroy them! Then the whole Sirius Sector will acknowledge our presence and self-determination!”
“Yea, and if we use the cannon and wipe out the Liberty fleet, the rest of the galaxy will probably join together and attack us as well! We may have this “weapon”, but we certainly don’t have the fleet to cover it!”
“We certainly do seem to be in a sticky situation”, comments one of the generals. “Computer, open up program “L-Fleet 5” on the holographic display on the council table- initiate!”
“Opening file L-Fleet 5, stand by…”
The room dims, and the middle of the council table opens up, revealing a device. It shoots up a map of the Sirius Sector, dotted with pictures of ships and words. The general stands up, and begins introducing the conflict.
“Shortly after our war with the Hessians and that energy burst, Liberty declared war on the Corsairs. Bretonia, though they hate us, weren’t able to join due to an escalating Molly situation, but have allowed Liberty access to their space. Kusari couldn’t join due to the fact Rheinland destroyed a good amount of their forces in the previous war. Rheinland is allowing Liberty to use their space for moving the ships in exchange for aid in fighting the crime and materials for rebuilding the Rheinland Military, but once again they aren’t able to join due to a collapsed military infrastructure.”
He pushes a button, and the map zooms into the lower-right of the map. He points out two large clusters of ships.
“These ships here are two groups of the Liberty Expeditionary Assault Fleet. Alpha, seen here in Cambridge, have been launching attacks into Omega-5, and sending some strike forces into Omega-3 then into Omega-5. Beta is stationed in Omega-7 and is sending some forces into Omega-5 on the other end, and some are doing raids on our stations Omega-41. We have the protection of the radiation in Omega-11 and Omega-41 to slow their advance, but they’ll eventually come together at Omicron Gamma.”
He clicks another button, and zooms into Omega-5.
“After our war with the Hessians, we were planning to strike at their bases in the surrounding sectors, then eventually at Vogtland at Dresden, but this conflict has delayed their eventual destruction. We have this cloud of radiation from the remains of their old station, but it is beginning to clear up. We’ve had reports of escalating attacks from Liberty fighters, mainly hit and run. We have yet to see their battleships coming in, but we believe the strike ships they are sending in are probably acting as both raiders and mine clearers. We’ve seen them clearing the mines and destroying large asteroids, more than likely to clear a path for the battleships. Now for those of you wondering how much of a chance we’ll have fighting their fleet, it’s slim. Their battleships are far larger than the ones the Hessians were using- Their secondary ships are probably about the size of the Hessians’ main ship, possibly larger. We can have a chance of bringing some of them down- I’ve heard rumors of the Blood Dragons being able to take down some Rheinland ships during the war, but I doubt we’ll be able to take the whole damn thing down.”
He zooms into Omicron Gamma and Omega-41. Some areas show large areas of blue and red.
“We are going to plant mines, radiation explosives, dummy fighters loaded with explosives, EMP devices, and many more, to try and hamper their advance and to take down as many ships as we can. We are going to form a line of defense in three wings, each headed by one of our three starships. The fighters are going to be loaded with some of our best weaponry, power cores, shields, and engines. Some of the fighters will be loaded with torpedoes and EMP missiles to try and fry the battleship shields. The battleship in each wing will act as the destroyer and hang to the rear covered by a wing of fighters. We’ve also turned Trafalgar into a weapons platform for long range defense. What happens after that is left to destiny and chance.”
One of the other generals stands up, and pushes another button.
“Loading Defense-1”
A hologram of the planet appears, and the general begins speaking.
“We’ve also begun a planetary defense and ground force. All the children and elderly have been evacuated away from the large cities into smaller settlements, mountains, and underground settlements. EMP cannons and planetary defense cannons have been set up around the planet’s surface. When the Liberty Navy manages to break through our forces, we will send them to the planet’s surface to participate in the defense. The rest of the ships that can’t manage it will head into Omicron Theta, along with some of our civilians, and the Elders…”
Elder Ferdinand interrupts.
”There is no way in hell I’m going to leave. Send the real “Elders”, but I’m still young enough and capable of warfare!”
“But Elder, please! You need to head the resistance and keep our people together in our eventful exile.”
“I don’t care, I’m going to fight with my fellow Corsairs, and let them know that we are all in this together! It’ll help morale!”
The general sighs.
“Very well, you can stay here and go onboard the Hispania, and coordinate the Nervión and Tejo.”
He turns towards Alvaro.
“And you, Lieutenant, you’ll lead one of the main wings. I trust your abilities. You’ll be briefed when you get to the LZ.”
One of the Elders stands up.
“Dis…”
“Sir!”
A Corsair rushes into the room, short of breath.
“Sir…”
“I told you guys not to interrupt during meetings!”
“Sir, this is urgent! Computer, run the recent transmission!”
The hologram shoots up the image of a distressed Corsair, with a view to space behind him.
“This is…. Cadiz… We’re…. they’ve boarded… casualti…forces retreating… they’re coming…”
Alvaro can see the debris of ships floating in the space behind him, and spots battleships in the distance. Suddenly, two soldiers come in, and the captain pulls out his pistol, but too late- one of the soldiers lands a shot right in his face, sending him flying backwards. The feed turns dark.
“We received this transmission an hour ago, and we were only able to get that much audio fixed!”
“Damn!” yells one of the generals, they’ve come quicker than we thought! To the war room! Send a transmission to the surrounding forces to initiate the defense protocols!”
“Alvaro, come with me”, says Elder Ferdinand, “All the rest of you, dismissed, Long live the Corsairs! I hope to see you again, at least on the living plane…”
End Ch. 18
Edited by - MercZ on 8/7/2006 12:27:50 PM
Edited by - MercZ on 8/7/2006 12:30:20 PM
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