Outcasts and Core, Corsairs and Order. Now i think I’ve seen it all…
Spent most of my time out of Delta. Needed to do some exploring. Made my way through Theta and took a turn towards sigmas and Rheinland. Nothing overly exerting. Scouted round into Frankfurt and noticed id got a logged minefield. Strange. It didn’t even detect as very efficient either. Closer look? Why not- Worst case i can always leave.
Started to poke around, nothing too fancy. Just a little look around. Couple of relatively calm-looking places, some moderately unsafe, and one reading as flat-out suicide. Space never fails to amaze me. Took a look in the less dangerous places, and there were Rheinland intelligence officers trying to fill me with pamphlet propaganda. No thanks, got enough on my plate as it is.
Contact. Showed as a ship, but inactive. Thought id have a look. The wreckage contained some armament i have never seen before. Nothing in database of any faction, didn’t even identify as alien. I took it with me. Figured i could get a friend to look into it for me. But, if theres one… surely theres more around?
No sooner had i thought this, were there a second ship hull, carrying a similar weapon signature. Unknown. Of all the places to find such, here in the middle of nowhere. Kept scouting, for another way out, but there wasn’t anything showing up, so i dipped out the way i went in. Started keeping my eyes open for these ship hulls carrying strange signals.
Took the turn through Rheinland into Liberty, and sat at Pueblo for awhile. Sent my contact a message, with the cargo being sent by a trusted courier to a drop-off site we used to frequent. Recently contacted to say the courier arrived, so he should tell me what they are by next week or so. Read a news article about the Dark matter storm in Kepler. Ames still operational? This i HAD to see. Colorado still had jump hole connection, so with some minor hull reinforcing, felt ready to brave the dark energies. Much to my surprise, the Zoners had mapped a route through the energies where the tunnels seemed to be weakly ionising. Ames greeted me with a warm welcome and a refill of coffee supplies. Story swapping at the bar, reasons for visiting the lonely research platform. Then the time to leave was upon me.
Halfway in an attempt to reach the Shikoku jump hole, there was a disturbance in the antimatter. An unknown contact. Yeah. In Kepler. Must be able to traverse the storm better than us, because it came close enough to lock on to. And yet… even more confusing than the usual aliens i’ve seen. No discernible “vessel”. Its proximity was alarming enough that i couldn’t focus on my next route move. To make things worse, it’d appear, then vanish. Alot. I needed to get outta here… and fast.
No sooner had i made to return to Ames, a recognised contact appeared on sensors. Crowley. Twice in two days, two completely different places. To make matters worse… he didn’t seem surprised to see me. Another reason not to stay. Strange things had started to occur, more alien swarming. Some didn’t stay long though, probably couldn’t cope well with the systems interference…Good, one less thing to worry about. Out through Colorado, Ontario, California and then to New York. Docked at the battleship Missouri to refuel and restock supplies. Cant survive on coffee alone ahaha.
Checked the charts. I was getting a little homesick and i didn’t fancy nipping all the way through Rheinland space again… so i stared at Zone-21. Rumours of Freelancers not making it back through had been commonplace. Even attempting to breach security there was considered lawbreaking. Though i suppose they’d have to catch me to do so. Besides… i knew it had a quicker route to Delta.
Tanked down a coffee, picked repairs up and plotted in my course. No way i wasn’t gonna try. And if i got caught, I’m sure as a first offence it’d be a fine and escorted out. Reminds me of what Daros told me once: “pretend you’re a tourist, that normally works!” That’d take some pulling off i’m sure Daros. One last check over before takeoff, and the most i tense flight i’ve been on yet.
Mines, weapons platforms, checkpoints and patrols. Too many to count, all of them locking on and lighting me up. Ahhh, good ol’ Liberty. Spray and pray as usual. Minor paint scratches and a few bursts of thrust later, i’m back through to Minor.then the most extremely uneventful cruise to Delta, Freeport 11. Pitstop to check to see if either Miss White or Daros had left me anything… Nothing. Too soon i guess…
Delta, felt too quiet. And that was proved to be the opposite en-route to Theta. Much to my surprise… Outcasts were amassing in heavy battleships. Along with… the Core!? Two known enemies, together in force? To make things worse, it seemed they were taking on the mixed forces of sensor contacts logged as both Order, and Corsairs. Yep, today is the day that i see it all… Who knows, if they fight loud enough maybe the aliens will wake and fall upon them in force. There aint no way i’m staying around to find out if that happens-
Off to Sigma 13. Some sanity restored through the peaceful space of Kusari’s borders. Honshu next stop, take a left at Akita Border Station, then hopefully some peaceful exploration. Nope. Today had one more trick. Crowley again. One wide-band local transmission: “You again?”
He punched right through my disabled private transmission line. Cross-system too. I stopped, trying to work out how. All while receiving their communications. Something about “Destiny… if i believed in such things.” A return ping: “are you monitoring me…?” The reply was ominous. “You’re not important enough to monitor. …. Yet.”
That. No. Time to get the fuck outta here. Not staying around to find out what this creepy fella wants… or could possibly NEED to monitor me for. Delta may not be safe for me now either… gonna have to find somewhere else to disappear to. Maybe Taus…. Cause this is just too much…
