The Afterparty

[Nightfall]

Nightfall was already running towards his Sabre when the proximity alerts on the Ampoliros started their lament. The black Sabre was fast like a bat out of hell but still too slow...

A nova exploded...

"Angels Fall First!" said the intruder into Nightfall's mind and started laughing.
"Mariella!" Bernard screamed from the top of his lungs giving name to his pain.

The black intruder entered the range of Nightfall's nomad cannons. Lock n' load. Nightfall squeezed the trigger. Purple death started pouring from the gun nozzles...

Tears started fogging his eyesight...

It was already over for the intruder. Shieldless because of the proximity of the Nova torpedo explosion, he had no chance to survive the barrage. He was quickly pulverized by the quad Nomad Cannons and Outcast Wyrms...

"No!" Nightfall said to himself... his Sabre drifting now amidst the debris "NO! damned... me... and my lovestruck ramblings. I should have known better! I have betrayed her! Damned!"

Bernard was crushed... He pulled out his Cardamine mask...

"Ampoliros, this is Nightfall... a... coded comm... just arived... I have some urgent thing to attend to... at home... " he paused "Take that shipment to Rochester... rendez-vous at Malta, further orders will follow"

"I should be able to make it in time to the Sacred place in Alpha... the final home!" he thought and punched in the sequence for the Alaska jumpgate...

---

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