An Outcast among Outcasts

[Cat]

Distant past,
Unknown cargo hold

Kyle woke up in an escape pod. Judging by the sensor data, he wasn't in open space, so someone must've picked him up. He paused, thinking back to how he ended up where he was. The result wasn't satisfying: he didn't know. So he tried to reconstruct the past events. He remembered the fight around the LNS-Guardian. He and Lambda-1 arrived when the dreadnought was already surrounded by Rheinland fighters. The leader ordered him to focus on his target, cease firing and dodge when fired upon, and not to let any Rheinlander drag him into a one-on-one duel. All these pieces of advice were logical: Rheinlanders had faster and more nimble fighters that packed almost the same punch as Libertonian ones. Not to mention that they were experienced pilots.

Things went worse when Rheinland bombers showed up and launched torpedoes. Kyle had to disengage the fighters and try to save the carrier from being obliterated. At least hitting small torpedoes was easier than hitting large fighters, because torpedoes didn't dodge and return fire. With torpedoes taken care of, Kyle tried to return to the fight, but that's when Lambda-1 was shot down, and Rheinlanders focused their fire on him. Kyle had to evade, and he couldn't do anything when another wave of torpedoes headed straight for the dreadnought. He didn't even have time to think about all his friends back on the ship, as he was too busy fighting for his own life now.

The Rheinlanders forced him away from the main battle, and it was only a matter of time before a stray plasma bolt could end his fighter. Steering it was already problematic. Then suddenly the green Wraiths ceased the pursuit. Kyle could only guess why. Maybe the reinforcements from Texas came? In that case he was saved! The radar indeed showed allied green dots at a rapidly increasing distance - Kyle was still flying away on instincts. He tried hailing the Libertonian ships, only to notice that his comm system got damaged in the fight. Intent on turning the ship around, he pulled the joystick, but the ship didn't respond to commands. Probably the thrusters were malfunctioning. The green dots were disappearing from the radar one by one.

Turning off the engines and thrusters was easy, but inertia still carried the fighter towards the asteroid field. To Kyle's horror, he couldn't do anything about it. Help was a few minutes' flight at cruise speed, but his own ship was carrying him in the opposite direction. Kyle hoped to save his ship, but as he saw a large asteroid appoaching rapidly, he hectically pushed the "Eject" button. The pod was shot out of the ship moments before it crashed into the asteroid. The last thing Kyle heard and felt before passing out was the explosion that'd push his ship further into the field.

- Came to your senses, pilot? Took you long enough. - the voice brought Kyle back to reality. He was in escape pod, and he didn't know where the pod was.
- W-who's that? - Kyle tried to mask his fear with the exhaustion of a person who's just returned to his senses.
- A friend, if that's what you're worried about. The name's Carl Greaves, I'm a.. merchant from Liberty.
- How did you find me?
- I just ran across your pod not too far from the Texas jump hole. Heard there was a huge mess here. A Libertonian dreadnought got spaced, a few survivors made it out in one piece. I assume you're one of them?
- Yeah. - Kyle replied curtly. There was no point in lying, his escape pod was marked.
- Right. I guess I'll make a detour to drop you in Texas on my way back to Coronado, if that's ok by you.
- N-no... - Kyle himself was surprised to hear himself say that. He didn't even know why he'd say that, but it felt the right thing to do.
- No? I thought you wanted to return to the Navy. Look, I ain't no taxi, I won't be hauling you back to West Point, I'll be going straight through California.
- I'm... not asking for that. In fact... I'd rather get off at Barrier Gate.

---

Not so distant past,
Known cargo hold

Kyle woke up in an escape pod. Judging by the sensor data, he wasn't in open space, so someone must've picked him up. He paused, thinking back to how he ended up where he was. The result wasn't satisfying: judging by the hum of the ship's engine, he knew exactly who had picked him up. And no reconstruction of the past events was necessary.

- Why am I even still alive? - Kyle asked the question, although he feared that he already knew the answer. Since the moment when he could barely keep his ship facing the Outcast while he was being shot at from behind, he knew that he was horribly outmatched. And the Outcasts do take prisoners.

- Murder is bad and unproductive. That, and I do have to pay for my ship's repairs. - Kyle knew what that implied, but his captor's next comment was even worse: "By the way, your pod's air supply was damaged, so I routed some of the oxygen from my ship's life support systms. Don't mind the scent, you'll get used to it on Malta."

Kyle knew what the scent was referring to as well.