It were long weeks for Ricky, sitting alone in the cockpit of his glorious liner. He missed his soulmate Amnezia, she had been away for over 2 months now and apart from the odd “I’m fine, don’t worry” message’s he didn’t see or hear form his great love.
That was a about to change…
During his time alone, Ricky had plenty of time to think of everything he had seen or heard in the Sirius sector. His chats with all the random pilots out there, the long conversation with the Colonials, the strange feeling he had inside the Geode with Reggie, everything fell in place now.
A couple of months ago he had overheard some Zoners talking about some personal vendetta in the Newcastle system. Back then he found out that Reggie had some sort of old score to settle with the Blue jelly’s that swarm a very specific area there. According to many stories, Reggie was aided by a group called the Sons of Liberty. It didn’t take Ricky long to find out who those Sons of Liberty exactly were, Richard York was the most infamous of the pack and mostly seen as the leader to those that do not know better.
Apparently this Richard York guy had assembled a small fleet around him and his ever so loyal Gunboat the Prospector. Ricky had encountered him before in the Colorado system when he had business on Ames Research Station and every time the Prospector managed to receive all kinds of “Donations” from the people passing him, apparently they valued there live enough to help the “Children of Ouray”, as York loved to call them. Among the loyal pilots that defend the Prospector, a fighter named Tex was a regular sighting. This pilot seemed a lot older then the others and gained as much respect as York. Although Ricky never met them both, he was sure that those two together were the key people in the Sons of Liberty organization.
A few weeks after the Xenos helped Reggie finish his Newcastle endeavour, Ricky received a cryptic message from a guy naming himself Tex.
Tex ‘ere, we should meet, I know your schedule and will see you on Ames.
Ricky remembered the Xeno ship under that same name and hoped it wasn’t some sort of trick to get hands on his beautiful liner. He decided to take the chance and orders his Navigational officer to proceed on schedule, but warned him not to fall behind since there were “important” people waiting.
The Golden Greenleaf was filled with people, food, drinks, crew and everything else one could imagine aboard a Luxury Liner. Ricky greeted all passengers and VIPS in the large ballroom:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you aboard the most luxurious Liner known to Sirius. Those of you that have already been aboard this ship, know where to find all the good places, but for those who do not know, here is the short version:
On decks 1 to 9 you can find the passengers suites, on decks 10 to 14 are the VIP suits. Decks 15 to 25 are mostly shopping centre’s, restaurants, casino’s and more time-spending entertainment. You can find 1 Lounge bar on each entertainment deck, but on decks 19 en 24 the large Lounge-bars can be found, these 2 bars are the only bars where you can get hands on the glorious Golden Green.
If you have any other questions, my crew will be most welcome to answer them all. I would say, Enjoy yourselves and make it a good and joyful week.”
Ricky then winked at the crew, who immediately started running over the decks, guiding the passengers and VIPs to their respected suites. He took a last good look, then turned his attention to the first officer behind him.
“It’s time to go”
He sat down and looked into the darkness of the void.
"War. War never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage."
Transmitted on Radio Free Liberty from Ouray base just minutes ago:
"Our great a fearless leader, void spit on his oppressors and raise his memory to legend, William Patrick had a plan for us Xenos before he was taken from us and turned into a machine.
here are his words:
Patrick's good friend and Lieutenant Richard York has taken up his lost comrade's cause to lead the down trodden of Liberty onto the path of freedom and righteousness. Because we are a poor people we must increase our cash flow and the only way we are going to do that is through the black market. The Liberty government will never allow us to hold respectable jobs and provide for ourselves, they will forever try to put us back under the thumb of their all mighty mega corporations. We will begin to take back what is ours this Friday. We will begin to make a difference."
...static
"We are sorry for the interruption to your normal programming, unforseen technical difficulties have resulted in signal loss..."
Crows filled the Bars. Shops, Casino's and corridors, the passengers were having the time of their lifes. Ricky stood along the highest ridge and looked down, a large smile crossed his face.
"Sir, we need you on the bridge, we have been ambushed by a group of Lane Hackers." a crewmen said behind him.
Ricky turned around, his smile gone by now, and said "Very well, its time for another Diplomacy Lesson... *Sighs* Those hackers never learn."
30 Minutes later
"Full speed ahead Johnson, we lost enough time "chatting" with these bloody hackers." Ricky's voice was loud and even angry. Apparantly the Lane Hackers keep thinking that the Liner would "donate" to their cause.
It was only a short trip to the New York system from here, they would fly aroun the Ice-rock cloud between the Maggelan Jump Gate and Planet California Minor. The cloud always was a good crowdpleaser if you had the sun behind to illuminate it.
All those years traveling the Sirius Sector had proven its worth, Ricky knew most of the Beauty's in all the Major Houses and even a few in the Omicrons. He tried to plot the best route that he could, but the unplanned stop at Ames Research Station would surely cause some passengers to complain. Apart from the Zoner base, all there was in Kepler were those dreaded Xenos.
Little did the passengers know, that Ricky arranged a meeting with the people they all distusted. He could only hope that it wasnt a trick, he heard from many people that the Xenos were slippery folks. Luckily he managed to get in contact with Amnezia, his one and true love, she would be in the area. Amnezia had made sure that both the Shining and the Phazed would be close, whatever Ricky could need, she would be able to provide it.
"Sir we are closing on Planet Manhattan, should we set her down for refueling so that the Passengers can roam the Malls of Manhattan?"
Ricky looked towards the scanners "Not yet, I see Miss Noir, park us next to her, lets just hope these stupid LPI wont come aboard to check my cargo and VIPs" You could see a small smirk on Ricky's face. He was sure that some of his VIPs would not like to see the LPI running over the ship, to keep silent of the small farm in his hold and the Golden Green in the Lounge Cafe's.
"Mr. Johnson, take us to the Mooring Fixture, I've made arrangements for Miss Noir to come aboard." He then sat down in his chair on the bridge, picking up the Intercomm-Microfoon.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, as some of you might have noticed already, we reached the New York System. This means we will take our scheduled stop here and all of you are free to roam around the planet for the next 5 hours. Those of you that wish to remain aboard, are most welcome to, you will be assigned a crew-member to see that you will not be short of anything. Be safe and please make sure you are here on time for our departure."
He took a deep breath and called for a waitress "Gall, please run down to the Lounge Cafe and get me a bunch of those greens."
He had 4 hours to relax, roam his ship and talk to the remaining guests on the ship. He knew exactly who would stay behind, his first stop would be the Colonial corner to have a chat with some of his very first buyers.
"War. War never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage."
Billy Tranton was used to being in the dark. For the 2 years now that he had flown the Botany Bay as its master he had done the best job he new how to help is best friend James Bannon. Billy remembered escaping from the Carlos grip on Beaumont. He remembered his life hanging on the whim of the two nefarious Outcasts, who controlled the booming Cardamine market in Liberty. Even then no one told him what was going on, he just did his job, sold his stuff and got payed. Last month's trip to Newcastle had been the same, only then Prospector had expected Billy to negotiate with these crazy Zoners...Temporary Autonomous Zoners...what sort of name was that? These Zoners had come to them saying they wanted to help...to repay Prospector for helping defeat the beast within the Dom Kovash ruin in Newcastle...but Billy's long experience in business made him suspicious of perfect deals such as this.
Ridiculous really. As captain of the Botany bay, Billy had seen a lot of weed in his day. He bought and sold it by the metric ton every week, carted it from the southern border systems all the way to Nome. But the quantities these Zoners were talking about staggered the mind. Liberty had not seen such a stash ever in its long history Billy suspected.
The thought of an entire star cluster getting 'high' was another matter to consider. Would synthetic marijuana temporarily end all conflict by virtue of everyone feeling good? Or would it clog up the chugging juggernaught that was the Liberty economy, take the capitalistic sex drive away from Libertarians and put Liberty back into the 20 century? Or would everyone simply get the munchies and deplete Liberty's supply of Cheet-os?
These thoughts wandered through the smugglers head as he set course for Kepler and the Ames Research station. He also distracted himself with thoughts of chasing loose women on the Zoners Luxury Liner Golden Greenleaf...
LPI Chief Matt Myers looked over the Junker's tip off with pursed lips. He was known to be a jovial buffoon to most, but those few that knew the man well - the President, as well as most of the leaders of the other lawful Liberty factions and the higher-ups in the LPI - knew him to have a mean streak, making him an implacable foe if goaded. So, the Xenos were gonna try to spread the tokes? Try to get people doing Weed?
Matt activated his comm unit, sending a message to his secretary: " I want every tub o' lard as c'n fly in a Liberator airborne! Tell da repair crews that no matter what dey say, they got hours to get every Liberator and Havoc they got on maintenance worthy o' flight! I want Clements ta rouse da Rusty Donuts gunners, so if'n da foos wanna come by Manhattan, dey be in fer a surprise! And if ya need ma, I be in ma ship!"
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