Comm ID: captain Henry Scuttari, onboard the Perseus
The mission was sucessfull. Arnaldo Navarro did four runs from Fortaleza to Houston, bringing all the illegal stuff to the Liberty markets. Only common patrols were found during the escort, without any presence of the SA on the scanners.
Scuttari out.
Comm ID: major Rob "Razor" Humboldt, onboard the Vampire
I engaged the SF today, on orbit of New London. It was a fighter named Tetra. He ran from the battle, giving us the victory.
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After that, we proceeded to Omega 5, docking at Ronneburg base. The Vampire made a clean up on the system, destroying several corsair fighters.
Doctor Jorge Ortega works in his cloning slaughterhouse, at a installation in some location on planet Malta. This time a woman, a bounty hunter pilot, is on the surgery room. She was pregnant. Mary DeVille was her name, a famous bounty hunter pilot from the core of Omega 56. The born of her baby was a success, but it will not belong to her. Doctor Ortega just extracted the genetic codes of such awesome pilot for his research. And the baby, he will keep for his future experiments.
She was being transported in a dromedary freighter, and with her there was a package. The pilot of the dromedary, also a bounty hunter, was sold on the slave trade, and the package was sent to dom Emilio Cortez, who showed it to dom Henrique de Medici. However, another bounty hunter came into rescue of Mary, his name was Joseph Marshall. He passed the security of the Medici villa and retrieved the package during the meeting of the two doms. A fierce ground battle happened, but the bounty hunter escaped with his friends, who covered him outside of the villa.
Word was sent, again, to Andre Moire, as the Phalanx was called for a new mission, to retrieve this package for the outcasts at all costs, as was something very important for the doms. The bounty hunter was tracked to Hudson, and the Perseus was sent there, intercepting it near the rogue base. The mission was a succcess.
Moire was curious about the package, although the orders from the doms were not to open it. However, Raphael Thames, the intelligence officer of the Perseus, opened the little box and found inside it a chip, with a code, and analysed it.
Raphael Thames: This codeits for opening the hypergate in the uncharted territory.
Henry Scuttari: Hows possible?
Veronica: The bounty hunters are always after nomads in the rim systems, they probably found this code in one of their ships.
Raphael: But what they dont known...is that this code is for activating that hypergate.
Oshima: And why do you think its for activating that thing?
Raphael: The patterns are very alien in design.
Oshima: Yeah, but there are other hypergates located somewhere.
Raphael: Im just supposing
Oshima: Yeah, yeah, you are just supposing. I suppose that the doms will not like that you had opened this box.
Henry: They have scrict orders to not open it, Raphael. But this can have some usethe doms dont known about this gate, and also the bounty hunters.
Veronica: Are you thinking in trying to open it?
Oshima: We found this gate by accident, and its in a uncharted territory, very far from Beaumont and much more from planet Houston. Its just a old piece of alien technology.
Henry: But who known what is on the other side?
Oshima: Oh no, you are not thinking on doing that, are you?
Henry smiles: Full power to engines. Lets go to the hypergate, guys.
Oshima: But the doms
Henry: The doms can wait.
Comm ID: Andre Moire, main office, base UB-4, planet California Minor.
To: admiral Nicholas Volsung
I have bad news. I lost signal of the Perseus some minutes ago. It was on the Texas system. I tried to contact Henry and his crew but Ive got no response. They were with a package that was retrieved from the bounty hunters, I dont known what is in it. I order you to move your ship to Texas.
Doctor Ortega analyses the latest samples collected from bodies of dead pilots, as a young man in a suitcase enters the room.
Sergio: Doctor Ortega.
Ortega: Sergio! What I owes the pleasure of your visit? Sit, have a break.
Sergio sits in a chair: What are you doing now?
Ortega: Just collecting a V-8 sample, for production of the E-82 Virus.
Sergio: This is the one that dont work right?
Ortega: Of course it works. It justs needs some more preparation. So, what the son of dom Henrique wants in my humble house?
Sergio: Its about that bounty hunter, Mary DeVille. Did you removed the neural net from her?
Ortega: Yes.
Sergio: But I dont saw anything in the department of biomechanics in this facility.
Ortega: I dont sent it yet. Its inside that cabinet.
Sergio walks to the cabinet, and then find the baby of Mary inside a small jail, at the side of the cabinet.
Sergio: Hmm, this is a good experiment. Dont even looks like a clone
Ortega leaves the microscope: Who? Ahthis oneits not a clone, but a real baby - he returns to the microscope Mary was pregnantshe was being transported in a dromedary on way to Omicron Tetha, escorted by a wing leaded by Joseph Marshallthe bounty hunters lured us to think that Marshall was with the code, but our intelligence discovered it wasntat least its what I known he leaves the microscope and walks in direction of Sergio who were to think that a pregnant woman was carrying that small box inside her baby bag?
Sergio: What you will do with this baby, Ortega?
Ortega: I was to extract some samples from it, but I think it will not be necessary anymore, as I got what I wanted without needing a child sample.
Sergio open the jail and get the child in his hands, the baby start to cry aloud.
Ortega: You being the administrator of the hangar 21, maybe known some better use for this baby.
Sergio tranquilizes the child in his hands and smiles: These little crying babies, they always feels good when they are in the hands of a good admin.
Ortega laughs: Do you need him? Its a boy.
Sergio: I will see what I can do with him. At least, its the son of Mary DeVille, a legendary bounty hunter pilot. Someone will like to adopt it.
Later on, in hangar 21, several ensigns are in line, ready to receive instructions from a major. Sergio cames to inspect the ensigns.
Sergio: As ensigns of the mighty Malta civilization, you will be assigned to different taskssome of you will be sent to the Malta guard, and some others to the militia in Tau 31, to kill both bretonians and kusarians. In this one, its recommended that you join the battle when the two sides are exhausted. Also, some of you today are going to be assigned to the Theseus, the Phalanx flagship.
Sergio walks in front of the line, looking to the faces of the ensigns, until he cames to a very sad face. He looks to the name in the uniform of the ensign.
Sergio: Ensign Lopez.
Antonio: Yes sir!
Sergio: What is this sad face that I see here today? How you will be flying there, in the bloody skies, without the proper morale?
Antonio dont answers, a tear runs through his face. He lower his head.
Sergio: Raise your head and look into my eyes when Im talking to you!
Antonio: II have lost my childmy wife was pregnant, but the baby borns dead. II just a failure.
Major: He was in the Perseus before, sir. One of the few fighter pilots serving under Scuttari.
Sergio looks to the major: Well, its a lot of stress in Liberty I suppose. Where you are going to assign him?
Major: I was ordered to assign him to the Theseus.
Sergio looks back to the ensign: No. Assign him to the defense fleet. Mr Lopez, we need to talk.
In a small room in the hangar, Sergio hands the baby to ensign Antonio Lopez.
Lopez smiles: What is this? Looks a beautiful baby.
Sergio: Its the son of Mary DeVille.
Lopez: Ohyou mean, that really good pilot from the BHG?
Sergio: She was pregnant and out of action recently. We captured her and doctor Ortega cared for the born of her child. He dont see any use for this child, so you can adopt it if you want.
Lopez: Thanks, my lord! Thanks! I will raise this child to become a good pilot like her mother was!
Sergio smiles.
Far from here, in space, Nicholas Ivanov Kravchenko, more known as Volsung, analyses the scan. The radar dont show any non-outcast ship. He receives the message from Andre Moire and leaves the guard position near Malta.
As Nicholas approached Montezuma base, he received another message from Andre. The location of the UB-4 base in California Minor was discovered by the liberty navy and the base was to be evacuated from there. With only lane hacker fighters at disposal, all the material was to be lost from the base, unless a big ship was able to carry them away. For this Andre called the Theseus to California Minor. Several liberty navy ships were destroyed, including liberty cruisers and gunboats, and the base was evacuated. Its facilities consisted of the control center, a laboratory for research, a small factory of fighters, some hangars and weapon stores. The Theseus descended in the planet, and the facilities were unmounted and brought into the big dreadnought. The navy arrived with its marines right at the time the Theseus was launching from the white soil of the planet. A battle happened in the atmosphere of the planet, involving mostly fighters, which were able to cover the Theseus as its escaped with all the crew of the main office. The unmounted facilities were delivered to container transports near Alcatraz base, and from there they were shipped back to Malta. The only exception was the main office, which was part of the control center. This office was remounted inside the Theseus, as Andre Moire wanted to come with Nicholas to Texas for the search of the Perseus, since Scuttari, Takahashi and Thames are his long time friends.
Andre walks impatiently in the control center of the Theseus.
Nicholas: Stop that, its getting on my nerves.
Andre: Its already two hours that we are scanning the entire system. Dmitri, did you got something in the scanners?
Dmitri Petrov: No sir.
Nicholas: Andre, sit and calm down. And let me give the orders to my tactical officer.
Andre sits in a chair: How this can happens? Just now that everything was going fine, with the liberty navy being destroyed by the combined effort of outcasts, hackers and roguesthe Perseus disappears and my base in California Minor is discovered. Now the worse thing that can happens is a loyalist revolt in the Defiant.
Vladimir Chernov: Sir, we got a transmission.
Nicholas: Lieutenant, not now
Vladimir: Its important sir, its a liberty governmental encoded transmission.
Andre: Oh, no, its not what I thinking it is?
The hologram that comes from the control table shows the face of a man with a thick mustache and a big cowboy hat, and cowboy clothes.
Bill: Im senator Bill Money. How are you? I have some news to you. The loyalists inside the Defiant mutinied and aprisioned your lapdog, Julian Sark. They have taken control of the ship and are now heading to Texas to get you. Yeah, our patrols knowns you are there.
Nicholas: He is bluffing. This is a bluff.
The hologram shows Julian beated, his face full of blood.
Nicholas: Well he is not bluffing.
Andre: And why are you sending this?
Bill: Well, Im just braguing one more victory for us.
Andre: You are being beaten everyday by combined fleets.
Bill: Yeah, but every single victory counts. We owned you in this one.
The transmission ends abruptly. Andre gets irritated and take a breather of cardamine.
Nicholas: Relax, our ship is better equipped against it.
Andre: We have to rescue Sark. He is a honourable man, and a good card player.
The battle was quick. The Defiant was beaten, mainly because the rebels who were at the side of Sark had retreated to the back of the ship and sabotaged its engines. The marines invaded it and brought Sark back, but the ship was in flames and there was no time to repair it again. So Andre sent word to the Phoenix shipyards in Vespucci to send a container transport and two repair ships. A wing of fighters was also dispatched from Mactan to guard these ships during the repairs. Sark was severely wounded and brought to the medical emergency room. The mission for the search of the Perseus had to continue.
When Sark awakened, he was informed about the situation, and he tells to Andre, from his bed, about the hypergate in the uncharted territory.
Andre: Why he dont reported it?
Sark: He said that to me when we were playing cards at Alcatraz. He said it was a very occasional incident, and was not needed to report to the high command. However, James Edwards knowns about it, as that happened before he was transferred to this ship.
Edwards was just working in his laboratory with his drugs at that moment. Andre calls him. Knowing the approximate position of the gate, Edwards helps Dmitri to find it in the scanners.
Nicholas: So, Sark said he jumped through this gate. But we dont have the codes to activate it. How Scuttari got those codes?
Andre: The package. They opened it. Thats the reason why its so precious. It opens up new possibilities of colonization that were to be only available to the outcasts.
Nicholas: To the doms of Malta, you mean.
Andre: We dont have this code. Theres no way to go through this gate...The Perseus is lost forever...Lets go back to the location of the Defiant.
Nicholas: Ok, then. Full power to engines.
Andre: Wait!
The gate suddenly opens as a light glows on its center, and from there came a infestation of nomads.
Nicholas: Battle stations, now!
Another furious battle happens, and the remaining nomads try to escape through the gate. The Theseus go on their tail and reaches the other side. Still, the nomads escape from its cannons.
Nicholas: Hmm, I think I known this system
Vladimir smiles: Sir, its the Cygnus 32 system! I recognize the two stars.
Nicholas: Oh, sowe find a way to go back to home.
Andre: Common, you are not thinking in visiting your parents right now, do you? Lets keep the mission.
Nicholas: Of course.
Dmitri: Sir, I found it. Its wrecked.
Like the Defiant, the Perseus was let in flames in the middle of the space, after a battle with the nomads, involving a fleet two times larger the one the Theseus fought in Texas. But the scanners showed the crew was alive, in escape pods in the middle of the ether. They are tractored to the ship.
Scuttari awakens in the medical room, and see Sark at his side, in the other bed. They smile to each other. Andre enters.
Scuttari: You dida big mistake, Andre.
Andre: Not really. Nicholas identified this system with Cygnus 32 which have a connection to the slavic systems. And we can jump back to the gate.
Scuttari: Did the tactical officer of this shipmade any radiometric scanning in that gate?
Andre: No. Why?
Scuttari smiles sarcastically: This is a one-way gate, Andre. Theres no way back.
Andre: What to you mean, theres no way back?
Scuttari: We returned to Texas after we jumped in this new system, but everything was different.
The scene goes back to when the Perseus returned through the gate:
Scuttari: So, its a new system. A nice discovery that will render me another medal, and lots of money from the doms.
Oshima: Yeah, you can even think in retirement now.
Scuttari: Common, do you think that Im so old?
Woodland: Captain, theres something wrong here
Scuttari looks to the scanners: What John?
Woodland: There is a antimatter cloud coming through the alien gate, and its following us.
Scuttari: Oshima, order to turns the ship 45 degress in direction of Houston.
Woodland: Its not working, it continues to follow us.
Veronica: Oh, no.
Scuttari: What is it?
Veronica: The patterns used for communications are all messed up. Its like they use another encoding.
Raphael: Give it to me. I will try to decrypt.
Scuttari: Try to detect some pwzor transmission.
Pwzorsthe little alien race that disguises as humans and sends open channel communications to all ships in the systems. Their transmissions usually consists in lol and : D. Some minutes passes and nothing comes, not a single pwzor transmission.
The scene goes back to the medical room in the Theseus.
Scuttari: And not only thatthe long range scanners dont picked ships from the SA or HF, which are currently at war. We waited for hours, but the anomaly changed everything.
Andre feels some horror: Anomaly? What anomaly?
The scene goes back again to the Perseus. They reach the Houston planet, and notice that theres not many capital ships around. All seems to be quiet. Scuttari orders the ship backs to Beaumont. He check the news in the station, since something strange seems to be happening. He dont find anything about the war between the SA and HF, but find about a trading agreement between bretonians and kusarians, that can raise the trading in the Taus, and thus bring more profit to pirates acting there.
As he returns to the ship, Raphael shows that the patterns used for communications suggests they crossed a interdimensional gate.
Andre: Thats madness.
Scuttari: I initially thought the same. But we got to New York, to California and then to Cortez, with the antimatter cloud following us in Texas until the New York jump gate. In Cortez we found a gate to a system called Panamaand this gate was never there. When we returned to the location of the alien gate, it had vanished and there was only a jump hole with that same antimatter cloud around it. When we returned to this system with the double stars, we saw it was still the same, but the jump hole had also disappeared. Its a anomaly.
Andre: Thatsthats not possibleyou have taken too much cardamine
A officer enters in the room, desperately out of breath.
Scuttari: John had made a radiometric scanning of the gate, and it showed it was not being used for five hundred years. Guess why the nomads dont used it?
Officer: Sir, theres grave newsthe gate disappeared from the scanners.
Scuttari have a nice laugh, that echoes throughout the room.
After him and the others are cured by the advanced medicine in the Theseus, they meet together at the bar of the ship. Andre is drinking, sad about what happened. Nicholas sits at his side in the balcony.
Nicholas: Hey man, you dont need to worry. Everybodys here, except Rob Razor. Andre: I have lost everything I build with so many effort.
Nicholas: The universe is unpredictable. I learned that when the Twilight had wrecked in Omega 55. And I learned that we can start all over again. I read in the news that a revolutionary movement is concentrating in planet Los Angeles, involving rebeled liberty navy fleets. Perhaps we can work for them? Lets made a toast for our hopes, and forget our fears.
In a table, Scuttari and Sark play cards.
Sark: Well, friendI said to you, this game is much more better than that other that we were playing before in Alcatraz. I just learned this one from the downloads that Raphael made from the Houston planetary network.
Scuttari: Raphaelthis guys always impressed meyou known we dont have access to that network, but with him, theres no limits in the cyberuniverse.
Sark: For us, too, there will be no limits in this new universe we have to explore and conquer.
Scuttari takes his cup full of beer: Lets made a toastto a life of freedomwithout the restraints of petty moralism, and with better games as well.
They toast, they drink, they commemorate. They are freemen, and for freemen, the universe dont known limits.
