Jason woke up with a splitting headache. He opened his eyes and found himself in a dark room, lying in bed. When he tried to raise his hand to feel his hurting head he noticed that he couldn't. His vision was blurry and couldn't seem to focus on one point for long. he heard a soft beeping to his left and turned his head to see where it was coming from. A surge of pain shot through his body when he tried to move. He grimmassed and a groan escaped his lips. The room started dancing and swirling before his eyes. From further in the room he could hear the noise of people walking past the half opened door to a dim lit hallway. The beeping next to him seemed to have sped up, or was it just him imagining things? He took a deep breath and tried again looking to his left. Some sort of machine with red blinking lights was next to his bed. There were all sorts of tubes attached to it, and when he followed them he saw that some of them went into his arm. Where am i? A feeling of anxiety krept up on him as he tried to remember where he was or how he got there.
Footsteps came through the door and he saw a young woman enter the room. She moved over to the machine and said something in a language he didn't understand. She seemed to push some buttons and had a worried expression on her face. More footsteps and more people entered the room. Someone jerked at the tube in his arm, they all talked to him but he couldn't understand a word they were saying. A light came closer and was held in front of his eyes, so close that he had to look away. He felt a sting in his arm and he tried to pull away. Images suddenly started to drift in front of his eyes as his head sank back in the pillow. All sounds faded away as he closed his eyes and lost consciousness.
He woke up again in the same room. This time is was light though and he could see more then the previous time. To the left was the strange machine which produced steady beeps. Against the wall were some cabinets and what looked like a sink. Across from his bed were some chairs and a small table, and to the right side was a large window with the curtains opened. His left arm was stiff and hurt a bit where the tubes entered his body. He also noticed that the headache was bearable now. He tried to move his fingers and was relieved that they obeyed him this time. Making fists with his left and right hand he tried every part of his body. His toes and feet were also able to move but lifting his legs was to much to ask for. Bandages were all over his body, and most limbs still hurt, but it was a faint kind off pain. There were no decorations in the room, it was plain and functional. And he was alone. Thoughts began to run across his mind. He frowned and tried to remember where he was. Images of his small apartment in Manhattan flashed before his eyes. A smile formed on his lips. He loved that place. Even with his grumpy neighbours who made far to much noise he grew quite fond of it. He shook his head. No.I need to remember. He remembered the battleship which he followed to the New Tokio jumphole. He remembered getting back to New York and talking to the kind police officer. That's not what happened. He tried to dig deeper in his mind. What did i do next? He remembered a rather grumpy fighter pilot who told him to "scram" at Blackport 66. Thats not it either. His head starts to hurt again and he closes his eyes to help him focus. Come on jason, what did you do next? He sees a freighter leaving Pittsburgh, which he followed to the Texas system where he found the gold commodity. He suddenly remembers his desire to visit Galila and how he got lost in Burgurdy trying to find his way back home. And the police officer, whose name he forgot, who told him he could go home if he could find the jumphole to Rishiri. Something about magnets. And a Nuclear Device! He laughs when he remembers that. Thinking was hard work and his mind felt like it was floating in jelly. He suddenly felt very tired. But at least he was getting somewhere now. He started drifting away again and soon was sound asleep.
He hears some voices in the room and when he opened his eyes he saw the same young woman he saw before. She is making entrys in some sort of data device while talking softly to a man standing next to her. She looks up when jason checks if his limbs are still under his control. Still working, thankfully. She smiles and says something incomprehensible. She sounds friendly enough. The man turns around and leaves the room after pointing something out on the data device. Jason's eyes follow the man's every movement out of the room. He turns back to the woman and studies her more closely. She seems to be mid twenty's, normal height, dark brown hair in a ponytail and bright green eyes. She moves over to the bed and feels jason's head. Her hand feels cool, but pleasant. He tries to give her a smile when she says something in the gibberish language he doesn't understand. Jason tries to say that he doesn't understand but his throat is sore and dry. He coughs and tries to get his voice in working order. The woman raises a finger of her right hand and moves behind the beeping machine. She returns with a glass filled with what seems to be water. He thankfully bows his head in gratitude when she sets the glass to his lips. he slowly drinks it all and sinks back in the pillow. More gibberish words come from her mouth and she goes back to her duty's, whatever they may be.
Jason gathers his thoughts. Right, where were we? He closes his eyes to shut out any distractions. Nuclear device. Shocked navy. A close friend. A Rheinland battleship commander begging for mercy near Manhattan. Jason remembers the man's pleas for asylum and how he felt a deep sympathy towards him. His train of thought is interupted when he hears footsteps enter the room. Expecting the young woman again he is surprised to see the man who was with her earlier has returned with a new bald man with glasses. Uneasy Jason shifts a bit more upright in his bed and warily observes the two. Good morning mister jason, i am doctor Ramsey and this is my colleague doctor Benson.
It took a while before jason realised he understood what the man has said. Before he could say something though the man raised his hand. "Now, now, i'm sure you have questions mister Jason, but these can wait, don't exert yourselves, please! You are still weak and you will need all your strenght to recover from the accident." This got jason's attention, and he fought the pillows to be able to sit upright. The man continues: "A patrol found your escape pod near the Temple of the Damned, you were badly injured and they feared for your life for several hours. You had several surgeries and we kept you in a coma to speed up the healing process". Jason frowns. "How..." Again, the man raises his hand, interupting the question jason was about to ask. "You are quite save here, we need to keep you under observation for at least two more days. Your recovery goes very well and we are sure there isn't any permanent damage. You do however have a mild form of amnesia. Do not be alarmed, in time you will regain all memory. For now please rest and try to take things slowly". This was alot to take in for jason. Accident? Not remembering anything frustrated him beyond belief. For now he would just have to take the doctors word for it. "We thank you for saving our lives" says jason. He sees the doctor looking at him funny. Jason is used to it, he gets that alot. "Its merely our duty sir, and we are glad we could save your life. Is there anything else you would like to know before i have to tend to my other patients?" A millions question come to jason's mind, but he realises the doctor doesn't have time to answer them all. "Yes, where are we?" Doctor Ramsey looks surprised and says: "Oh i'm so sorry, i totally forgot to tell you! You are on Freeport 11, in the Omicron Delta system".
When the doctors left, jason had some time to think things over. Omicron delta... That kind of sounded exotic, he surely never heard of such a place. He wondered how far he was from his beloved Liberty and how he would be able to find his way back. After mauling things over for a while he decided it was best to put these thoughts on hold till they became relevant, since there was nothing he could do to change the situation. Appearantly something bad happened, he just had to live with it. At least he was alive and would be all better soon. The nurse came checking in on him several time and they developed some hand signals to communicate the most basic things. Dividing his time between sleeping and training his motor skills, soon most of the bandages were removed and he was pleased to see his skin as it always had been. No scarring from the fire, or explosion or whatever happened to him.
The two days went by and in the late afternoon of the third day doctor Ramsey dropped by to check jason out of the hospital. "You are good enough to travel, though i'd advise you to be careful the next couple of days just to be save. Pulling 8G turns isn't something i'd recommend just yet". The dockcrew that salvaged your escape pod also managed to salvage your blackbox, there are some gun camera files saved and most of the nav system was intact aswell. That should help you find your way back home. Oh and we brought you a new set of clothes, the ones you were wearing are full of holes and burned to a crisp". Jason thanks the doctor for everything and curiously tries on the new clothes. They are a bit to small but it would have to do for now. Jason looks in the mirror by the sink to see the result:
Looks like he needs a shave aswell. He wanders the hallways for a while to find the nurse who took care of him during his stay the last few days. He finally finds her at a station chatting with a colleague. Although he knows she won't understand he says: "We thank you for your care, we are most grateful". He extends his hand but she gives him a hug instead and murmles something in that funny language. Jason isn't a man of many words, but he feels the message got across regardless and he starts heading for the exit, waving goodbye one last time.
Jason wandered around Freeport 11 and looked around every shipyard and dock in search for a new ship. The ones they had here looked all very strange to him and he wasn't sure if he was able to pilot one. He remembers the salvaged blackbox from his escape pod and searches through all the data on it. In one of the last neural net transmissions he finds a picture of his old ship and he gets new hope. In one of the repair shops he shows the picture of the ship to one of the young boys who seem to work there:
The boy unleashed a flood of words and seems to point in every direction before looking up to jason, clearly awaiting a response. Jason just nods several times, while pointing from the picture to the boy after which he takes his sleeve and drags him over to another section of the repair shop. To his surprise he sees a pretty banged up Raven's Talon, just like the one he had flown for so long. He inspects the cockpit, the wings, exhausts and weapon systems. Its not great but it would get him home at least. With some acrobatics and hand signals he makes clear that he wants his salvaged blackbox installed and linked up to the nav system.
After an hour and a half everything seems to be in working order and jason climbs into the cockpit to plot a course for Liberty space. He lets out a groan when he sees where he is. Now he really wonders how he got here in the first place, as its pretty much as far as you can go from his home. He realizes this will be a long journey so he would supress his usual urge to look for souvenirs in every place he will come across.
When he's satisfied with all coordinates, he makes preparations to jump from Omicron Delta to Omicron 74 and from there to Omicron Theta. After that it's Omega 41 and Omega 11 to get back to the civilized world.
After leaving the station and having the first waypoint locked in jason takes a closer look at his nav system. It would seem that he is flying the exact way back that he came. There are alot of stations marked but he has no recollection of him being there. The first jump goes much faster then anticipated and after some dabbling he decides to make detours to the stations and planets that have been marked in the nav system. Maybe someone will recognize him and can tell him more about what happened to him. First on the list is Freeport 9 in the Omicron Theta system. As soon as he docks he visits some of the bars, like he would normally do. None of the people there have seen him before. After that he tries some of the merchants and traders and keeps an eye out for any interesting items he could use as a souvenir. He finds a Solar Panel and Rum, which he takes back to his ship.
Next on the list is Freeport 5. On the way there he comes across a huge star.
He repeats the process he did on Freeport 9 but his search turns up empty here aswell. He did manage to get some very nice souvenirs. Jason was very pleased with his new Elixers, Plasfoam Conduits, Polymers and Robotic Hardware.
After he made the jump to Omega 11 he saw another big star and decided to take a closer look. As soon as he got closer alarms went off in his cockpit, picking up huge amounts of radiation. This was not a good place to hang around for long. In the distance jason spotted some weird looking clouds and headed over in that direction. There were alot of shiny rocks around and after shooting some, he found some Uncut Diamonds. This would make an excellent souvenir for his collection. Despite all the setbacks, now he had something to bring home!
He quickly made a stop in Solarius Station where he bought Diamonds, before heading over to the Stutgart system. Moving into Rheinland was his best bet to meet travelers or find souvenirs he didn't have yet. On Planet Baden Baden he found some interesting lookign Holo Taintment Bands and Hypno Taintment Bands. He had no idea what they were used for but as a collector you cant be too picky. Touching down on Planet Stutgart he noticed an Apfelstrudel salesman and he happily took a few of his hands. They were delicious! Dordtmund Station was his last stop in Rheinland where he found a Hazmat Cannister which could proof usefull in the future. As jason got more weary from his travels he went straight for the Hudson Jumphole and made it to the New York system in a short while.
When he arrived in New York he met a friendly Angel who solved some of the ship problems he was having lately. Jason was glad he was almost home, and after thanking the Angel for their kind assistance he took the last few trade lanes to Manhattan. When he got to his appartment it was as if he never left. Eveything was still in place and as it should be. He smiled when he heard the neighbours making a ruckus next door again. He walked over to the shelves where he kept his souvenirs and added his trophy's of todays adventure to his collection. Though he was still slightly concerned about his missing memory's, he was sure it would all fall into place eventually. After a quick shower he hopped into his own bed, and curled up for a nice well deserved 12 hour sleep. Home sweet home.
Jason was ready for his first adventure after his ordeal in the Omicron systems. When he woke up earlier he went through all his mail and attended to small chores who got neglected while he was in the hospital. One of those things was paying his rent, like any normal civilian. This is when he noticed his financial situation; he was slowly running out of funds to fuel his adventures. The new ship, and numerous repairs to keep it flying were starting to make a serious dent in his bank account. Maybe he could find some sort of work to help keep paying the bills that kept piling up. He'll have to look into that when he got back home. After a quick stop at the commodity traders to buy the bare minimums, food, water and oxygen he left Manhattan orbit in search of a new adventure.
Fort Bush was one of his favorite spots to look for fellow travelers so he decided to have a look there first. After a while jason got tired of waiting around and traveled to the Colorado system to see if he could find something there. No adventures to be found anywhere. Little did he know that that was about to change.
When he got back in New York he saw an enemy battleship close to the trade lanes and decided to investigate. Unfortunatly the pirate has spotted jason as well and commanded him to cut his engines. Curiously he flew over to the ship to see what's what. Luckily jason didn't carry any valuable souvenirs and as jason was considered quite poor in Sirius, the pirate decided not to make any demands. Just as jason was about to leave an Atlantis class carrier came to the scene. The captain of the huge ship wasn't to pleased to find an enemy capital ship so close to the trade lanes and started to chase the pirate. This looked interesting! Jason had never seen such a big ship before and decided to follow the Atlantis, who was still chasing the pirate. In a short while jason caught up to the carrier and it let him to the first secret of today's adventure. A Jump Hole! They all went through and jason found himself in the Colorado system again. His instincts paid off this time and he wondered what else he could find. In the meanwhile he observed the communications between the pirate and the captain of the Atlantis.
For some reason the pirate thought jason was chasing him! Jason wasn't a brave man, he didn't like violence at all and in his whole life jason had never destroyed another ship. Only exception to this was when he flew some missions for the local law enforcement to get on their good side. Some would consider him a coward but he'd like to think of himself as cautious and tactically retreating in the opposite direction in hostile encounters. He was quite comfortable with this mind set and this would only change when someone tried to steal his precious souvenirs.
The bickering between the two captains of the other vessels amused jason and he stuck close to the carrier. Suddenly the pirate ship disapeared! He was so focused on staying with the big ship that he neglected to check his other scanners and smiled when he saw that it led him to yet another Jump Hole. This one went to Kepler. The navy commander circled it a couple times before heading towards the Rio Grande. Jason thought about this real quick. He was very curious to see where the Jump Hole led too, but he remembered the pirate thinking that jason was chasing him. Ha! The ego of some people, really! But it wouldn't be unthinkable that the pirate was waiting in ambush on the other side and would open fire on anything that came through after it. Jason decided to come back here another time when there were less capital ships around that might fire on him.
At the Rio Grande jason lost sight of the carrier, and headed back to New York again.
When closing in on the Colorado Gate jason picked up another pirate on his scanners and went in for a closer look. As jason was being polite and explained that he was looking for secrets and souvenirs the pirate didn't bother with jason. He made it clear however that he did not wished to be followed around. Jason always respects other peoples wishes, and didn't want to risk agravating the heavily armored ship. Two law enforcement officers came from the New York system who were immediately interested in the pirates purpose of being there. Seeing that this could escalate into a fight, jason backed away from the vessels to make sure he wouldn't get hit. Sure enough a battle started shortly after and jason observed for a while. This wasn't getting him any new souvenirs though, but with the fight being right on top of the New York Gate he couldn't get past without risk of being seen as an aggresor and get shot at. Then a trade vessel appeared and a quick scan showed that it was full of Premium Scrap. Aha! This trader was bound to bring their cargo something interesting and jason gave chase.
"Are you going on an adventure?" asks jason. The trade vessels captains says he sure is, so jason decides to follow them. "Where are we going?" The captain replies "I know where we are going". This sounded like a mystery! Jason hopes he can find some good souvenirs there as he didn't find any yet today. Nothing worthwhile happened all the way to Yokohama Shipyard, which seemed to be the destination of the trader's vessel, which disappeared shortly after. Jason has passed through the New Tokyo system on many occasions but never took real time to visit all the interesting places. Most people that jason follows don't make to many stops on the way unfortunatly, and just blast right past all potential new souvenirs. Hopping from one station or planet to the other jason flies around a bit and other then some Industrial Hardware from Narita Outpost he doesn't find any exciting new things.
Jason spots an Samura ship entering the system and sets off to intercept it. It appears to be a shipment of silver and jason is very interested in silver as he doesn't have one yet. The flight is short and apart from some polite banter nothing happends before jason loses track of the ship at its destination. Disapointed he sets off. Near Shinagawa Station jason sees 2 ships coming in range, and a quick scan reveals one of them is holding Trade Lane parts. Jason doesn't have one of those either so he engages his thruster to catch up with them. "Greetings. Where did you find those Trade Lane parts?" The captain of the escort ship tells jason they found them near Pueblo Station, left behind by a train transport who got attacked in that area. Jason ponders whether to ask the captain if he could buy one of the lane parts but he decides its better to find one on his own. Nothing happends till they arrive at their destination. When jason docks after the ships have landed he quickly checks the commodity trader to see if they will sell him a trade lane part. Unfortunatly they do not and dont have anything of interest. Launching in to space he notices that the two ships he was with have disappeared. Boy, whoever is selling these cloaking devices is making a fortune!
While pondering where to go next, jason receives a transmission from another pilot accusing him of spying for pirates. Jason doesn't know what to make of this, but send a transmission back saying that he is unaware of any pirates and that the last one he has seen was over at the Colorado gate a long time ago. The other captain does not seem to believe him for some reason. Jason thinks it is getting very weird and is not sure if he should be offended or angry. Just as he is about to send another message to the captain, his ship explodes and his escape pod is launched into space. Confused and disoriented he managed to catch a glimpse of his attacker who was high tailing it out of there. The stations crew rushes out to save jason and the remnants of his ship. This is the second time within a week his ship gets destroyed! Aboard the station the medical staff examines him but by some miracle he hasn't sustained any injuries. The launchpad crew is already busy repairing the Raven's Talon. One of the workers spots jason and walks over to him. "Its not to bad sir, a torpedo hit the reactor and engine but the rest seems ok considering the circumstances. We'll put in a replacement and you can be on your way". He hands jason the bill, and returns to the work site. Great. Just great. The repairs and the restocking of bots and weaponry make another big dent in his already dwindling cash reserve. He was down to his last two million credits, so he'd have to get a job, and soon or he wont be able to pay for any more "incidents". Jason heads to the bar to cool his head while waiting for the repairs to finish. While hes there more comm transmission come in from the other captain. jason thinks to himself: "yeah i think i have found the darned pirate he was talking about"
Jason plots a course for Liberty space as he is getting more and more annoyed with Kusari and is eager to get home. When passing Denver he sees an interesting ship moored at the planet. It appears to be some sort of junker cruiser he hasn't seen before. Obviously he asks the captain if hes going on an adventure and the captain replies that he will in about 20 minutes. Jason promises to be back by then, as he could sure use a good adventure by now. He quickly flies to Fort Bush to buy some more weaponry and makes one loop around New York before heading back to Denver. The Junker cruiser is gone but maybe it is in dock or something so he decides to wait. A small ship passes by with pearls in its cargo bay. Jason likes that very much and hails the pilot of the vessel. After short introductions, jason asks where he found the pearls. The pilot seems very wary of jason and asks "Why?" Maybe the pilot felt threatened so jason quickly tells him about his souvenir collection and that he would like to buy pearls. The pilot eases up a bit and tells him to go to Planet Junyo in Shukoku system. Still no Junker cruiser. The 20 minutes have passed a while ago and jason fears something might have happened. He quickly sets the nav system to Planet Junyo to pick up a Pearls and moves back to Denver. No Junker. Seems like he isn't showing up. Jason is annoyed and tired and sets off towards Manhattan. He will not risk his new Pearls getting blow up by some darn pirate. After a short flight he gets home safely. In his apartment he places the Pearls next to the Uncut Diamonds he found in Omega 11. Jason likes shiny things. He will try to find Silver on his next adventure.
Jason went for Fort Bush to look around for some work. In the bar he met with a navy officer who had something for him. The pay wasn't great, but what can you do. After a short briefing jason launches into space in search for the band of misfits he has to take out. It was a tough fight, as the bandits outnumbered him greatly but on sheer will power jason pulls through. With 4 nanobots left, he docks on West Point for repairs and restock. He almost faints when the repair crew give him an estimate of the damage done. Fixing up everything will cost him 2.4 million credits, which he doesn't have. "Well that's the last time we work for the navy".
In a bad mood already, jason leaves west point and flies a loop around New York to quickly see whats going on around him. There's a bit of a ruckus around Fort Bush now, but he ignores both law enforcement and pirates. At Baltimore Shipyard, he finds an arms dealer promoting all kinds of wares. But without any credits to spend the man isn't very usefull to jason. What he needed was a merchant willing to pay for an escort. After some time he ran into his friend <ITS>Monsun, who was very surprised to find jason alive and well. Monsun tells him they were together on adventure in Omicron Delta when they came across an Artificial Intelligence cruiser. The thing agreed to show them around the system for a bit, untill it went haywire and shot jason's ship to shreds for no particular reason. Jason vaguely remembers meeting a robot thing, but other then that, he still can't remember any of what Monsun just told him. He is convinced it must be true though, as Monsun would never lie and he knows them for a while now. Jason decides to shoot any AI on sight in the future, as they can't be trusted.
Monsun was heading over to the arms dealer to buy some upgrades for his Shukensha Liner. Curious as he was, jason followed his friend to see what he would get. It turns out the weapon dealer had some sort of discount for capital armor VIII paired with a battleship scanner. That was exactly what Monsun needed, and he seemed very excited.
Jason congratiulated his friend with the purchases.