The Phalanx

[fwolf]

Andre Moire sit at its table in Leiden base, at Galileo system, looking through the windows to the ion clouds outside, and holding a coffee cup.

Andre: Synthethic coffee, again? Thought you had arranged for real coffee smuggled from Denver, Paul.
Paul: Sorry, sir, but this was not possible since the incident at Nelson refinery.
Andre: Ok, what you have for me now?
Paul: The files about the Phalanx, sir. We arrranged to bring it to you.
Paul throws a datafile in the table.
Andre get the data file eargely: Finally.
Andre connects the cable in his head and close the eyes. All the information is uploaded directly to his brain, the sensation of slumbeness possess his body from top head to feet.

Navy Directory <top_secret>, subject: The Phalanx

At <data_blurred> the Navy created, by comission of minister Raul Berger, the special operative called the Phalanx. The operative consists in five ships and a division of 150 marines with the most advanced equipment in the navy and trained to board any station.
The reason was to counteract the outcast presence at Colorado. They had build a huge base from where they deployed three destroyers at an attack on Pueblo Station. All patrols were put in high alert, but nobody was able to find the location of the station. After two months Raul Berger proposed the creation of the operative.
The division was consisted in the dreadnought Theseus, two cruisers, the Perseus and the Odysseus, and two gunboats, the Achilles and the Herakles. Plus two wings of 15 fighters each. High intelligence personell was located inside the Theseus, and they managed to find the secret base. The mission was successful, and the outcast threat was no more present at Colorado, except for the usual piracy. The leader of the operative was admiral Dom Claus, an exceptional strategist and specialized in fighting the nomads on Alaska.
However, the costs of the operative was going high. A reallocation was necessary, and they were deployed in Alaska and Omicron Minor, where, besides the nomads, they fought against the Order too.
Some months after, Raul Berger was assassinated. Everybody in the high sections of the congress knowns that were <data_blurred> and <data_blurred> who were doing deals with smugglers of nomad brains and financing horrible experiments in secret bases located at Pittsburg. Possible connections with the Junkers were found, but the deputies were not accused, since they had hot backs.
Dom Claus did not tolerate such deals. Abiding by his oath to protect Liberty, he decided to tell others in the navy what was happening, including his captains of the Perseus and Odysseus, that is, Henry Scuttari and Paul Austin. A fierce battle followed when two nomad battleships appeared on Pittsburg, backed with several nomad fighters. The Achilles was destroyed, and the members of its crew that survived were captured by the nomads. Dom Claus was charged for incompetence, and in its trial he decided to show the information about all the corruption and dirtness going on in the Manhattan congress. He was imprisoned and, after a mock trial, executed. His crew was arrested, but his lieutenant managed to alert the others about what was happening. The Theseus was decomissioned and its parts sold.
Henry Scuttari took control of the operative and they escaped to the Alaska system, where they were backed by some officers of the Navy, who supplied their ships. However, the LSF asked for the Navy for his arrest. After hiding for some months, the Phalanx was obliged to face a Navy squadron with 4 dreadnoughts, 8 cruisers and more than 50 fighters. The Odysseus was destroyed in Alaska, the remaining fleet escaped to New York and then to Galileo, where they used the clouds to hide one more time. Paul Austin and part of the crew onboard the Odysseus was retrieved to the Perseus.
The navy officers who were supplying the Phalanx were caught and arrested. One of them, major Conrad Johnson, was executed in another mock trial. This got Henry Scuttari very angry, as they were long standing friends. He planned a attack on Pueblo Station, and help was offered by a wing of lane hackers leadered by Vur-X. Vur-X was captured in the attack and interrogated with torture. He revealed the position were the ships were hiding in Galileo, and after that he was executed with poison.
Another battle ensued, and a serious defeat for the Phalanx. The Perseus and the Herakles were destroyed, all their crews were captured and passed in a mock trial that lasted six months. They were executed with torture involving chemicals. However, Henry Scuttari escaped, using a code offered by a nurse who was attending in the hospital of the prison, located at California Minor, where the crews were being tortured. The nurse felled pity for his suffering and she was daughter of a navy officer who sympathized with the Phalanx.
After that, Scuttari conducted terrorist actions against the navy, allied with guerrilas at California Minor. Navy installations were destroyed with bombs, but there were no civilian targets. The LSF, however, managed to find the location were Scuttaris wife was hiding, at planet Houston, and captured her, sending her to the care of navy officers who hold personal vendettas with Henry. Deanna Scuttari was tortured with all sorts of chemicals, and she got crazy, being sended to a mental institution, a mad house located in a isolated spot in planet Houston. Henry leaded a rescue team, but when they arrived, Nigel Torazin, a navy officer and one of the worst Henrys enemies, killed her at his front. After a fight involving guns and knifes, Nigel Torazin was killed by Henry, but this was not enough to bring Deanna back. Scuttari burned the institution to the ground, after freeing all its prisoners. He was not seem since that, and files regarding him were deleted to ensure no investigation was to be conducted about his life.

<updated>

Twelve years passed, the nomads were expelled back to the rim, and the administration of the navy changed since. Nonetheless, <data_blurred> and <data_blurred> were still holding power on the congress, now as senators elected by majority vote.
Scuttari returned, with a complete refitted Perseus, now a outcast destroyer. He is determined to destroy the navy and will target civilians if necessary. All the navy was alerted about his presence in Liberty space. He is now a lane hacker and is using their technology to spread misinformation in Liberty.

<data_ends>

Andre: We need more information, Paul.
Paul: Well, sir, I talked with Oshima Takahashi who is now his lieutenant.
Andre: Oshima? I already met him, before Scuttaris return.
Paul: Was Laerte who put Scuttari in the lane hackers sir, after recommendation by the Mactan council.
Andre: Laerte died five years ago. I see in the files that Scuttari stayed four years out of any activity until recently during the war between the navy and the asgardians. I need to known what he was doing during all that time. What Oshima told you?
Paul: Henry was living with the zoners during four years.
Andre: What? The zoners?!
Paul: He was in need of some peace after all the trauma caused by his wifes death. He was on alcohol remember?
Andre: Yes I known he had became an alcoholic, and a drug user too. Congratulations for him to have get rid of those, because I cant get rid of the cardamine.
Paul: Oshima told me about money stealed from some liberty firms using hacked accounts. This money was handed to Henry and he decided to put Perseus back into business.
Andre: Who stealed this money?
Paul: A lane hacker from Mactan, sir. Codename is Thames.
Andre: Raphael Thames.
Paul: Yes.
Andre: Well done. Thames always impressed me. Although he dont known how to pilot a stilleto, he is good with code-breaking.
Paul: The irony is that this money was hold in a account in the BHG before being handed to Henrys account.
Andre laughs out loud. He looks at the ion clouds, and he taste more of the coffee. Ah, we are brilliant, he thinks.