Ghosts of the Past...

[Reaver Company Inc.]

"This is SiN Tech Beta 1, resuming sweep."

"Roger Beta 1. Freeport 9 out."

Beta 2: How do ya like those Asgard Warriors?

Beta 3: A little snobbish, but otherwise fairly friendly.

Beta 2: Softie. I'm not going anywhere near those guys again if I can help it.

Beta 1: Quit it you two. We got a job to do, remember?

Beta 2: Aye sir.

Beta 3: Roger.

Beta 1: All right. Now lets pass sector 4... Wait a sec, what's that?

Beta 2: You reading the same thing?

Beta 3: Unknown object at 3 O'clock, and closing!

Beta 1: Stay sharp. It's probobly a freelancer.

Beta 3: Freelance ship, identify yourself!

Unknown: *Static*

Beta 3: Freelance ship, this is SiN Tech Wing Beta! Please respond!

Unknown: *Static*

Beta 2: Coming into visual range, now... What the f*ck is that!?

Beta 3: It looks like some kind of... crystal...

*** * ***

All right people, settle down. Let's get this started.

Two days ago, Beta wing was sweeping around Freeport 9, part of our PR mission, when they reported contact with an unknown object. The wing was in sector 4 of Omicron Theta, and managed to send one visual image of the unknown ship.

*A holo-projector springs to life, throwing the image of a strange ship, looking almost like a crystal growth that was molded into a ship form.*

Not long after, contact with Beta wing was lost. Gamma wing was sent to investigate, along with the small science vessel Endevor. They were joined by some larger AW support craft as they entered Omicron Theta. When they reached the site of the last transmission, all they found was the wreakage of Beta wing.

*A new image slides up, showing the broken hulks of three Eagle fighters.*

The ships were cut to peices. Whatever hit them, sliced right through any defences they had. Black Box info confirms the ship is alien in design, and not made of any known metals. No comm transmissions were detected, no life signs picked up, and the ship fadded from view after it destroyed Beta wing.

Ladies and gentlemen, it would seem that we have made Second Contact. And the aliens, just like First Contact, are hostile. Our new Dreadnought, the Unrelenting, will be dispatched to the area and lead the search for these ships' home base. The AW are also assisting to this end, and we will lend eachother our support as needed.

Alpha wing and Delta wing will be dispatched to assist the Unrelenting. All other ships are to return to normal duty.

Is all that understood? Good. Let's get moving people.

-Breifing Ends-

(Open to all... Just try not to hijack it, all right?)

---

Reaver Recruitment | Forum Reaver Database | Neutral Net Database

[Chucc]

Sitting in his booth on Manhattan, The Godfather heard the transmission on his private scanner.

"Send Twin to investigate with a wing of his Aces. I don't like the sound of that kind of encounter. Remember the last time?" The Godfather said to his friend, and confidante, Myrna Andstrade. "I want you to get in touch with anyone you know in AW, or FP 9 and get me details on their findings if you can. Have Twin work on that too.

A curt nod was his only answer, and the sound of someone getting up and walking away.


'Hmmm, what could it be this time? Bagh! Can't be good. Twin can handle it though.' Mused the Godfather in his head.

"Ay You, another round, and one for the rest of the bar. On me. The best you got. Not that crap, Liberty Ale. Also, bring me my tab. He said to the barkeep. going back into his musings.

'Gotta find that Outacst Nightfall, heard he can find out anything. For a price. Gotta love a man with his priorities straight.' He looked over to one of his guys. "Hey go find out how to get in touch with that Nightfall you were telling me about. Ask him to join me for a drink, and business."

The bartender interrupts any further musing, setting down a glass and his bill, saying, "Thats $4277 for the night sir. If you need anything else, just let me know." Then he goes back to the bar, helping a customer on his way, and grabbing empty glasses and shot glasses.

---

Looking into returning, maybe.

[Dab]

Over the comm unit.

Lieutenant Teinu: My Lord we have a message for you, from a Captain Soren. Shall I put it through?

Luciaden: Yes, put it through.

******************
Starting transmission

Captain Soren: Sir we had reportings of another sighting in the Omicron Gamma system. Seems the ship was attacked by a Corsair wing. Shortly after losing contact with that wing they called us, hoping we would know what had happened. When I went out to check the site the wing went missing we found a large cloud of debris falling into Cella Dor. We are currently tractoring in all the peices of the ship we can find. I have attached a picture of the ship to this message. However, the odd thing is we have not any bodies aboard the ship, nor any that have falling to the planet. Also, the Corsair ships were all either shattered, or blown apart, with no signs of explosions. The pilots inside were killed by vacuum and debris from destroyed parts of their ships. From what we were able to extract from one of the fighters the ships had all power from their weapons systems transfered instead to their sensor packages. The only reasoning for this must have been that the ship had not been showing any hostile intent, until the Corsairs had moved in towards it. Seeing as how the ships still had sensors on at full when destroyed suggests that they were killed before they could even use them or start making evasive manuevers. The firepower that would be required to accomplish such an act would be devestating to any ship, no matter how well defended. We are also attempting to reactivate a system we have cautiously identified as communications equipment. No word yet on how close they are to succeeding.

You here a beeping noise in the background.

Hold on sir, this is from the mechanic room, they might have been able to activate it.

You hear Voices in the background.

Sir, it seems like this was a command vessal. We have connected the comm equipment to our own and gotten several queries for assignments, but the symbols we are recieving are.. Alien. Hold on a moment, it seems like there is a comm link between the equipment and another ship. The system is transfering it our position and movement. I suspect it is used by an escort to follow us on a slave link. Hold a moment. It seems to be returning a message..

Silence for a few moments.

The system it is controlling our bridge! Its turning us! Something is appearing before us, nothing like I've ever seen! I'm sending a photo of it!

Warning sirons start sounding in the background.

Its shooting something at us! It went right through our shields! It has ripped the ship in ha -static-

Signal lost, transmission ended.

Attachments opening.


Debris, no sign of life, or battle, appears to have just broken apart in the atmosphere.


Unknown Contact, source of comm link.

Lord Captain Luciaden: Lieutenant, send a transmission to the Sigtryggr. Have it go to Cella Dor, in Omicron Gamma. To recover the Chimaera if it is still intact, or to bring back the bridge section. Also, tell them to shut down everything in it. I repeat, do not use any of the equipment in there.

---

[Alpha 429]

Sitting in his ready room on the Leviathan Vice admiral Alpha prepares to take the his ship back to Freeport 9.

VA Alpha(into his comm badge): Ensign Kai we have new orders. We are to take the Leviathan back to Freeport9 and keep the station safe from any threat that may be lurking in the system.

Ensign Kai: Yes sir right away.

Vice Admiral Alpha looks at the reports made anout the strange alien ships and begins to search the database for anything resembling them hoping that Luciaden's race had encountered them before and knew how to stop them.

---

I know where it is Cortana, I just have to find it. - Commodore Puddles

[Nightfall]

Buffallo Base, New York System

Nightfall was sitting at the bar with dark thoughts in his head, he didn't even touch the Sidewinder he ordered. The dark face he had... it was making him look older...

"Sir, the reputation is hacked and a new IFF is added, you can switch them here with this." said the local Hacker and showed Nightfall the little gadget.
"Here's your credits man, good job!" replied Nightfall grimly. "Hehe, good to have a few friends around in the shadows, you don't get these gizmos on the streets." said Nightfall for himself and smiled to the good thought that he was lacking in large quantities...

He went to the dockbay, the flightdeck was busy as usual... launched... he was incognito in the middle of New York... only if the lot out there knew the real identity of the ship and the pilot... all Hell would break loose.

He was told that the Godfather was looking for him... hmm, what could a man like that want? Nevermind, he had a reputation to uphold, someone was looking for him, he appears. "Again... good having friends in high places..." he thought "Yes. What would one be without the people he knows, without the people that know him? Nothing! One would not exist without the many..."

A white Sabre got out of the tradelane in front of Manhattan. Polished to the point of blinding, the purple/white of the New York sun's reflection on it was blinding. It landed on Manhattan. The pilot, tall man, dressed in white, with a white trenchcoat and his long white hair waving in the breeze got out of it and headed straight for the bar.

"I'm here to see your boss, tell him that the night has fallen" he said to the bodyguard in front of the booth...

---

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov
The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor

[Dab]

Captain Allineare was beginning to get a headache from all this. First strange sightings. A fragile partnership with this new Sin|tech organization, including hunts together for wierd looking ships. And now the sudden and confusing disappearance of one of their best Destroyers and its captain. And added to that there was no sign of the ship anywhere. After the Sigtryggr had arrived at Cella Dor they had searched the space around it for any sign of the missing ship. After finding no results they moved their search to the planet itself. No sign of the destroyer, the unknown ships it reported contact with, or the Corsair fighter wing. They had searched the entire Omicron Gamma system for hours with no more results than what they got at the planet. He had writen and sent a report back to the main base, and Lord Captain Luciaden.

Captain Allineare: Lieutenant take us back to the shipyards. There is nothing here left to find.

Large crunching sounds in the background. The ship jerks, almost spinning. The lights dim, red sirens start to go on and off, the sound is defeaning.

Captain Allineare: What the hell! Lieutenant Deiran put all power to our engines, get us out of here! Ensign Yetan I want all sensor recordings you can get out there, I want to know what hit us when we get out of here. And someone cut out those damned sirens!

The sirens cut out and the ringing in yours slowly dies away. All you hear are the shouting between the bridge officers and the thrum of the large engines.

Ensign Yaeron: Sir, damage report. Though unsure of what it was that caused the damage we are quite sure of the damages it has done. something hit us in the middle portside of the ship and literially shreded the armor and hull there. Whatever it was it went straight through our shields. Even the particle shields designed to stop meterial objects. The emergancy doors locked down the area so we didn't lose air pressure in the ship, but everyone in the area was sucked out into the vacuum. No critical systems damaged as far as we can tell.

Lieutenant Deiran: Sir, we are on course to the shipyard, whatever hit us seems to have disappeared.

Just then a large reddish, diamond-like mass appeared before the bridge viewports. From what he could see of it, it looked like the tip of a stilactite, or crystal. He couldn't see the rest of the ship and assumed it was off the port side of the ship, where they had been hit before. Before much more than that could go through his brain the crystal pivited like an arm and slammed tip first into the bridge. Adrenaline shot through Captain Allineare as the force to the wind shooting out into the vacuum started to pull him towards the edge of the captain's command balcony. He quickly grabbed a hold of the command chair and began dragging himself to the bridge door, which was quickly closing to prevent air loss to the rest of the ship. The door was almost completely closed by the time he managed to pull himself all the way to it. Dispair flooded through him as he realised he was about to die. His grip on the door's handle started to slip, loosened by the sweat that had been soaking his hand. Just as his hand slipped off the handle a hand shot out from the doorway and grabbed onto his wrist. Two marines were standing in the doorway, one holding the door open and holding onto the shirt back of the other, while he dragged the captain into the the auxilery command room behind the bridge. As the marine let go of the door and it shut he collapsed into the chair, faint from the exertions of getting out of the bridge.

Captain?...

He looked up to see Lieutenant Deiran standing beside him with a cut on his forhead with blood dripping down the side of his face. Allineare managed a grim smile. He hadn't thought anyone else would have gotten out of the bridge.

Sir? Are you okay?

Deiran touched his shoulder and he looked down. Thats when he noticed what Deiran was talking about. A rather large peice of glass was sticking into his arm. His eyes started to lose focus.

Lieutenant Deiran was about to order the captain to go to the medical unit and get himself checked at when his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell from the chair, landing on the floor.

Lieutenant Deiran: Get him to the medical bay, I'll get the ship out of here.

He grabbed the controls for the ship while the marines behind him picked up the captain and quickly carried him away.

---

[Kane]

Hidden in the green mist of the Theta Nebulae, 4 Rheinland Phantoms (The ships, not the terrorists) lay hidden. Ever since the incident with the Chancellor, the Rheinland High Command had stationed small recon teams within AW space to keep track of fleet movements, events, and anything that might be directed at Rheinland. One team per system, hidden within the deep recesses and unused areas of the system, monotering what they could. Being that far out had it's disadvantages, but the teams liked it because it kept them away from anything that might find them. The activity that was going on now was hard NOT to notice, however.

Keeping silent, the small team left the safety of thier positions to sneak around. Whatever was going on with these strange ships would spill over eventually. Rheinland had to know what was going on.

---

This is the real true story of rock and roll; it was not about anything more then, how to live your life, as a gangster, in sartorial splendor, and turning the world into a place where normality would never return again...- Malcolm McLaren

[Alpha 429]

The AW cruiser Glasgow was doing its usual patrol in Sigma 17. They were almost done for the day when a strange ship appeared on the scanners.

Ensign Le Maise: Sir the ship appears to be similar to the alien ones that have been encountered.


Captain Johnson: Is that a fact, well then why dont we be the first to take one down eh people? Prepare for battle.

The Glasgow changed course and headed for the ship.

Ensign Le Maise: sir they havent seen us i dont think.

Captain Johnson: heh well lets say hello, Ensign FIRE!

The Glasgow unleashed a lethal barrage on the enemy ship and after 5 mins of pounding it they stopped.

Ensign Le Maise (looking very pale): sir there is no damage on the enemy ship.

Captain Johnson: WHAT! You better not be screwing with me.

The alien ship returned fire wiping out all of the Glasgows weapons. Captain Johnson didnt stick around for it to do anything else. Captain Johnson headed for Omicron Theta as fast as he could and he sent a message to Luciaden hoping that he would be able to make some sense of this.

---

I know where it is Cortana, I just have to find it. - Commodore Puddles

[Chucc]

The night was young as the Godfather drank his Sidewinder. Quiet in an unusual way. The reports of the unknown ships had reached the media, and of course everyone was panicked.

In the background, at the sound of the bar doors opening, the sound of the bodyguards talking quietly stops.

A man walked in and approached them, long white hair flowing. Quiet is the voice, but undeniably carrying a bit of danger, "I'm here to see your boss, tell him that the night has fallen" he said to the bodyguard in front of the booth...

The bodyguard looks the man over saying, "Nice jacket." He turns and walks to an enclosed alcove.

You hear whispered voices exchanged quickly.

The bodyguard comes walking back over waving to the bartender.

"Have a seat over here," the bodyguard says motioning to the alcove. "He will see you now."

The man unknown to most, sticks out a bit as he sits at the table with the two men in double breasted business suits. The one a younger man, about mid-20's, in a dark navy suit stands, offering a hand to the man joining them. "I am Nicky, I am the man you will be talking and dealing with here, after today. Its good to finally meet you Mr. Fall is it? Welcome back to Manhattan, I hope it wasn't to difficult of a trip. We know of your, well let's say less appreciated moments here in the past. Those kind of things are of course unavoidable in your line of work." He says as they sit and he motions for the bartender to bring drinks. "What would you have?"

Drinks flowing, the niceties done as the rules of hospitality require. The old man that had been sitting there quiet, in his black suit, slowly sipping his drink, leans forward and asks bluntly, "Can I get you to bring me detailed data on these current unfoldings out in deep space? and I mean detailed. I want to know who they are, where they come from, maybe even an interpureter(spelling?) if you can find one. I will pay good money. Or if it serve your goals, I will purchase and distribute many loads of Cardamine, throughout the systems, if that suits you better. We can hammer out the details of course, are you hungry? I am about to have some dinner, homemade lasagna, made by my wife. would you care to join me?"

Just then in the background you see a hardened man in flight fatigues, covered in soot, and other burned pieces, comes staggering into the bar.

"There has been an attack, here in NY. Just outside 21, the Navy just got smashed by some unknown ships, trying to get a high ranking Liberty Rogue to the Prison in Alaska. They took the prisoner is all I could get sir. We were chased by both the alien craft as well as fighting the Navy." Exausted the man collapses at the table, a shard of high content polymer sticking out of the back of his shoulder. A piece from his ship apparently.

Nicky gets up quickly trying to catch the man as he falls. Almost in time, the mans head hits the table, *SMACK* blood runs freely onto the table and int the laps of the men sitting at it. "Guido, hurry. Help me get him to the med-unit." Nicky says to one of te bodyguards. They hurry away.

Three other tables in the bar also burst into action. A mean faced man, with hawk eyes, comes over saying, "Sorry, this meeting is over. We are leaving Boss. Might be nothing, but I am not taking chances." To the men around them, 11 in all, all large, and angry looking, "We are going to the Yaght, then the Liner, clear the way. Now!." Back to the Godfather and Nightfall. "We are leaving. Is he coming with us?"

The Godfather looks over at the man, "I don't know, do we continue this on my luxury liner or over private COMM's?".....

---

Looking into returning, maybe.

[Dab]

**Outgoing transmission, broadwave, unencrypted.**

Warning, do not approach the unknown crystal-ships. The ships are hostile. Also, they will appear off the side, or behind your ship before attacking. Repeat; ships will appear beside, or behind you like a ship decloaking, though without the usual effects of a cloaking device. So far we have only seen it use physical weapons, in the forms of large crystal-like tenticles attached to the main body of the ship. They will hit your ship using these "arms." They are apperantly invincible to cruiser-grade weaponry and suffer no apperant damage when hitting other ships.

This is the Asgard Warrior Cruiser, Sigtryggr, We repeat. Do not approach- - -

**Transmission ended.**

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