The Path to Valor

[Leo]

Meanwhile...

Warning -- Ship pressure dropping below recommended limit. Recommend equipping suit helmet to prevent suffocation

"No ****." Jason said grabbing the helmet and sealing it to the suit. The ship rocked harder the next time and the wing on his right exploded in a fury if metal and fire.

Warning -- Right wing damage. Mox fuel and plasma mixing. Leak detected...suggest ejecting.

"Right, eject in space when I'm being chased, what a great idea."

Warnin--

Jason reached up and ripped the computer console out from under the dash and threw it into the back.

The Liberty Navy wasn't happy with his most recent exploit of trying to knock off a big time DSE miner, now they were chasing him across Colorado. The bastards really liked their miners.

"Jason Newman, stop your ship immediately and prepare to be boarded, this is your last warning." said the lead gunboat. Jason snarled, his Roc would be able to take out one lone gunboat, but his fighter escorts would be able to tear him to shreds if he wasn't quick with the uptake. The fighters were tearing him apart.

"Right, because it really looks like I'm going to stop." Jason said cutting the transmission, he cut the engines and circled around to engage the gunboats. Just as he did, one of the fighters exploded out of the blue.

"What the--" said the gunboat as another fighter exploded, its pilot making a brief scream. A Slave Liner appeared out of nowhere inside the cloud, its green turrets ripping the small fighters to shreds. The logo on the side was that of a phoenix, and the writing said "Children of Conviction". "It's the Children! Forget Newman, attack the Slave Liner!" said the gunboat.

Just as he did, four Roc's came out of nowhere and began to tear the small boat to shreds. Jason took this as his chance to run, he turned and engaged cruise and headed straight for the New York jumphole. Whoever the Children of Conviction were, he was sure he didn't want to get into a tangle with them, especially when his ship was in the shape it was in. He would stop off at Rochester and then on to Buffalo. From there, he would get the hell out of Liberty for a while...to where, he didn't know. Just as he made the jump to New York, another cruiser sat in front of him, it's turrets all pointed directly to Jason's ship, he froze in place. The same symbol on the side of the ship.

"Jason Keller?" the transmission came from the ship, a woman's voice.

"I'm Jason Newman, I think you have the wrong person. Mind letting me go now? My ship is heavily damaged and I don't know if I'll survive much longer in here."

"Newman, a name you made up to escape the people you owed money from. Your real last name is Keller. You cannot fool us, Jason."

Jason cursed his own luck.

"Look, what do you want? You merc's coming to collect the money I owe? I don't owe any body anything, they're lying."

The woman's voice came back as laughter. "You really think we would put forth this money to find you because you owed money? How about you come with--"

Jason fired a couple blasts at the gunboat and then a SNAC before jumping to cruise, the shields went down and then the SNAC hit and crippled the small ships engines and weapons. The woman on board cursed before terminating transmission. Jason was running as fast as he could. Screw going to Rochester, he was going to run as far away from Liberty as he could. No one had used his old last name in YEARS. How they knew, he didn't know, but he wasn't going to sit around and find out.

---

"Sir, Victoria is on the line." said the assistant. I nodded and pressed the comm. "Go ahead, Victoria."

"Sir, your son is a little bastard."

I laughed.

"What happened?"

"The little prick disabled the gunboat in two shots."

Impressive I thought to myself. Very impressive.

"Did you get a tracking node on him?"

"Didn't get the chance, he was too fast. The Smilidon blew up the people chasing him, but was unable to locate him after they were destroyed. He's gone into hiding again, more than likely leaving Liberty."

"Roger that, we'll send Petrov after him."

"If I may be so bold, Jacob...why don't you go after him WITH Petrov?"

I considered this. Jason was essentially me 20 years ago. He would use the same tactics, the same ideals that I did back then, it wasn't a bad idea.

"That's a good idea; I'll inform him immediately that we're looking for Jason. Get back here ASAP."

"Yes sir, Quinn out."

I sat back in the chair pondering the situation. This would be interesting...

---

You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.

---

Starlight Research Consortium | The Banished Legion | Astral
[OOC]Junker Gameplay Loop Suggestion | [OOC]Boneyard Mining Suggestion