*A young man is writing into a book, every now and then he takes a picture of a page, he starts reading......*
Height: 1.9 meters
Age: 19
Eye color: ..........
I am Mattao Forte and this is my story. I was born on Planet Malta as an Outcast, my dad was a gunboat commander in a fleet, and my mom was a fighter pilot for the same fleet as my dad. I was a boy that grew up in a military school. Everyone else hated me, I was small easy prey for bullies and wasn't a good student, I was the one who was also blamed for the Cardi stacks in the dorms, and....well....you get the idea. I never really had a talent for anything, except for the day that we had our first _real_ fighter training when I was twelve....
Teacher: "Alright students, you have all trained hard, but your superiors think that you should have a harder challenge, although some of you may not do well *glares at me* I think that you are all becoming somewhat better, you will have one chance, every time you destroy the bot you will get to go again, but, you will have a another bot to worry about."
*excited muttering*
Teacher: "Alright, Devan, you first, you may enter your ship, remember I will be grading, *Devan grins then hops into the Dagger*
Not a bad fighter I thought....."Hermann!"....good power core, but yet very fast and agile......."Daniel!".......the guns not as good but it makes up for that in speed......"Mattao!".....*laughter follows*.....here it comes I thought, another chance to make a fool of myself........*more laughter when I trip over the gas line to the Dagger*.......one bot, ok I can just die there and I'll be done with it......*cockpit closes and the ship is moved into open space by a another ship*
*The teacher appears on the comm screen, "Ok Mattao, the bot will be unleashed in 5...4...3...2...1...GO!!"
I see the bot come out of the Battleship, no guns? Only missiles.........easy.......*my mind drifts back to the time I went with my dad and mom on dad's gunboat, I remember what he told me.....* I spring into action, unleashing a couple of volleys of lasers, the bot replies with two javelin missiles, I dodge easily and destroy it. Then two appear, one the same as before but the other with guns, I take down them and I remember that this is were everyone was knocked out. I tense as watch two of the same then.....a bomber?!.........I suck in my breath and attack, I lose some hull, but my guns are still intact. Next wave.......next.......next......on the seventh wave I am barely holding my ship together, I've lost one of my wings and two of my guns, I look for a next wave, I almost fainted when I see a gunboat, I kill two of the fighters and one of the bombers, the gunboat has me almost dead.....I try for one last desperate attempt to kill it, I fly at it guns blazing and mines dropping like crazy....I impact the gunboat and my ship is destroyed, but my guns and mines did their work......the gunboat was destroyed by the force of my explosion and my mines.......they tractor in my escape pod and the teacher runs over, he looks down at me and says, "WHERE THE HECK DID YOU LEARN TO FLY LIKE THAT?!?!?!?!" I look up, grin, then pass out.
I wake up in the medical section of the Battleship where two people are looking at me, my teacher and another man I don't remember, they both sigh and look at each other, I look at them and say, "Why am I here?" They both laugh and the teacher says, "Well he's still sane, *turns to me* "You are here because you broke your arm on that sim, you were the best pilot that day, and with your consent, you have been invited by the general to join your father's group of fighter pilots." I was......shocked.....amazed......gratified......and nervous, "But sir, you can only join once you reach 16!" The man next to the teacher smiles, "Yes, but we have made an exception for you, you are a better pilot than some of they older men." I looked down at my bed, I would leave everything here....but yet, I would gain time with my dad and mom.......I looked up and said, "I'm ready."
After I joined they issued me a Scimitar light fighter with all the trimmings. It wasn't the best one, yes, but it still packed a punch. I then joined the small group of fighters and some gunboats, of which my dad and mom were in.
After two weeks as part of this wing of fighters I was almost falling over every twenty seconds. We had a part in the border patrol to keep Corsairs out, we found about five, at the least, squads of Corsairs every day and had to kill them all, naturally......I loved it, the rush of adrenaline you get when you power up your weapons and when you get your first kill, although you felt a pang of regret when you destroy someone's ship....but the next one came and you forgot all about it.
I was exhausted but glad, we were going to keep a patrol in Omicron 81, we were told to not let anything go into or out of a jump hole......now that I think about it...our scanners couldn't read where that jump hole led.......We were keeping watch and then two battleships came literally out of nowhere....we were about to call for help when two Ranseur dreadnoughts and two Sarissa battleships cruised to our location and started firing on the unknown battleships, I thought I had seen a real fight but this was.......incredible.....then at least twenty other fighters exactly like the unknown battleships but as small as fighters also appeared. We started attacking and I knew how a real battle is fought.......then I heard......well it seemed like I heard it.....an unearthly scream.....and then it happened......I forgot about the battle...I was screaming like I was being stabbed over and over again.....then _they_ came out.....it was like the dead had come to kill us......I saw things in my head that made me try to kill myself......then it was all quiet, like someone had turned off everything. I looked out my window and almost screamed. In front of my ship was......there was too many to count...or I was just so dizzy, but whatever they were, they they scared the heck out of me, they were all completely black and they looked like the ships from ancient history books....but then I remembered about the unknown ships and saw that they were all gone, almost all of my squad had died...but most I saw fleeing back to base, I looked at the ships and then saw another wave of unknown ships came, I checked my ships damage, almost nothing......I started attacking and then a voice spoke in my head like a sword, "DO NOT ENGAGE THEM, YOU ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH." I thought to myself,"Well then I'll die trying...." It spoke again, "YOU HAVE DECIDED YOUR OWN FATE." I killed one of them and one caught me off guard....it deactivated my shields with so much ease that I was shocked...I tried to dodge but whatever it was was really, really good, it blew my ship to ashes and I heard the voice once more, "YOU SEE? YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE ENGAGED! BUT YET WE STILL HAVE AN AGREEMENT WITH YOUR KIND SO WE WON'T KILL YOU." I felt my pod being pulled into the ship hull, I found that I could open my pod and I did, the next thing I knew was a stun baton being shoved into my back and me falling over........
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
I woke up in the medical building of Malta after I was hit by that stun baton. I was in a room with a commander, well at least that was his rank that I say on his uniform. He was looking down at me like I had just died and he was picking my coffin. I looked up at him and I tried to say something but my throat felt like it had been burned for a couple hours. He stared up at the roof and then he walked out. I was thinking about what was going on and then I blacked out all of a sudden.
I woke up and heard two people arguing. I found I still couldn't talk so I just listened...."You were doing? I can't believe you did this and broke our treaty!" "We are not pained by our choice, we did it to our pleasure..." "I still don't want you messing with our troops!" "You do not want us as your enemies? Because we will destroy your pathetic bases and technology....You mortals are pathetic in doing....well...everything." I heard a scream, and I heard this, "You don't want to test us do you?" "No...no I was just....just...." I then heard a laugh that made all the hair on my head stand up. It was like someone was pushing a sword through my back.... "I will check on your "patient", we don't do this to many people" "No....he can't talk he won't be able to say anything." "I know that you fool!" "Yes sir...yes sir" I saw someone...no...something come into the room, he was wearing a type of body suit that looked like armor, but it didn't look like anything I'd ever seen. "He looks like he may live" was the beings words. Then he looked directly at me with....I didn't know what his eyes looked like...he began to speak..but not in audible words, like he was speaking in my mind, I didn't hear him, but yet I could, he said, "Hmm, you will live, but you will experience pain from here on in your life." I then saw him leaving the room. I was thinking about what he said and the other man who was talking to him came in. I caught my breath, it was the Admiral of the Outcasts. He looked at me then he left. I then blacked out.
I woke and I was feeling better, I could talk again but only in sentences. I saw the second in command of my fleet and he gave my four chilling words, "Your parents are dead" he then walked off. I felt like I was being hit in the back with a stun baton. I blacked out again.
The next few weeks were uneventful so we'll skip them, all that happened was I lived in medical for those few weeks and eventually got my voice and feeling back into my body. No one came to see me in medical, I didn't think it was strange though. I fully recovered and I went back to my squad.
When I got back the man who gave me the news about my parents had become the commander of the squad. I thought that I would be at least greeted by the others, but to them I had become "boy" or "thing". I thought that maybe they were all in a bad mood after that incident. But after three weeks, I found that they all hated me. I started think about deserting the Outcasts, but then the next day I decided it was time.
I was going to report to the commander but then I heard him talking, "The boy is too dangerous, we should just kill him now..." "Yes, yes, all in good time, but I think you should hear what really happened...." I had heard enough, I started sprinting to the docking bay, I bought some more equipment and took off. I didn't know where I was going but I knew where I should go...
Away from the Outcasts
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
I made it to the O-80 JH and jumped, then I heard the transmission, "To all Outcast ships, the ship with the transponder Matteo Forte is now under arrest for high treason, open fire on his vessel on sight and give no mercy. Great, just my luck, I saw an Outcast squad of a gunboat, bombers, and a couple fighters. I started to go around them but they had probably seen my transponder and they fired a cruise disruptor. "Well, well, well, boys, we got ourselves a big reward. FIRE!" I dodged their first blast and started on the fighters, in about two minutes my shield was gone and they had lost all fighters and two bombers, they then sent up this flare, "To all Outcast ships!! We have him here! To *static* Outcast ships, *static* need assistance! We *static* at the O-81 JH in O-80, to *static* Outcast ships, respond!" I finished the bombers and went to work on the gunboat, but taking down a gunboat isn't easy with a fighter, but it can be done. I had it's shield down and started to work on it's hull. Then, I lost all hope. A Sarissa BS and two more gunboats showed up, "Outcast ship, leave this area now, we have it under control." Then two gunboats shot me with EMP's to keep my ship disabled. I guessed they were talking over private comms, they finally decided to act, "Charging up Heavy Mortar Captain!.................Charging complete Captain!..........Let him have it!" I heard that and scrambled to the escape pods, just my luck, after the the EMP's hit, everything shut down. Then the Sarissa opened up with two heavy mortars, I was frantically pulling at the pod door when the power came back on, I threw the door open and jumped in. The heavy mortars hit. I felt a wave of heat explode through the entire ship and it felt like my hair was on fire. The Heavy Mortars ripped through my ship's hull and the explosion shot my pod 2.0k from the wreck. Then the Sarissa pulled me into it's hold......
I woke in a prison cell that was probably in O-81, My arm was covered in blood and everything I saw was spinning. I looked around and saw that my cell had one window and solid metal on every side, I looked out the window and saw part of what I thought was a long corridor. I stumbled around and saw light coming from new cracks in the window/wall. A man walked in and said, "Well, this little mutant isn't going anywhere." He then dropped a tube of synth paste and kicked me in the chest, he then took out a small stun baton and hit me in the chest with it.
When I woke up my vision was blurred and my head spinning, I probably couldn't last another day like this. Then I decided to get out of this place once and for all. I made my trap and then set it, well, I can't really set a trap in a 2x2 meter cell, but anyway, I got ready for him.....
"Ah, here's the traitor himself." He threw down another synth paste packet and pulled out his stun baton, as he prepared to jab me with it, suddenly everything was clear, my head stopped spinning, and my vision became clear, as he jabbed downward, I grabbed his arm, and twisted it around his back, and punched him in the lower back of the head. I pushed him into the wall turned him around and kicked him as hard as I could in his chest, he then fell over and didn't move. I grabbed his vest and pulled out his pistol and shotgun. I then grabbed his utility belt and salvaged that. I glanced at his ID, a guard, hmm, owns a Sabre, that could help. I walked out of the room with the shotgun drawn and the door hissed shut behind me.
After getting through all the security levels I got to the docking hanger. I found his ship and took off. I looked around and realized that I was in O-80, not O-81, I realized that I hadn't felt dizzy at all since I attacked the guard. I didn't have time to ponder it because a squad of fighters saw me, "Hold for an inspection.....You are free to move along." I jumped to O-Alpha and headed for the Tau-37 JH. I met up with a couple more squads, none of them questioned me for what I was doing. I thought that was a little odd because I would have questioned a prison guard three systems away from his post. I jumped to Tau-23 and flew around there for a little while. I came to an IMG base called...I think it was Java....and I docked there. I suddenly realized that everything that happened once I had escaped the cell went perfectly, I decided to get a new ship which was the Raven's Talon, I bought it and got some new equipment and went with a convoy to Liberty. When I arrived in New York I thought, "Who made this?" Everything was chaotic and strange. You would go down a trade lane, get stopped, and it would be a Liberty Rouge. He would ask you for one mil then you would move on. Everything here worked as smoothly as a broken starflea. I then bought an apartment in Manhatten for the time being. I landed my ship on the nearest bay and started to walk over, then five men in black cloaks stepped out with blasters drawn, "Take him boys." After that my mind goes black for about two hours, I wake up in my apartment feeling perfectly fine, I flip on the news and I see this headline, FIVE MEMBERS OF THE FOUNDATION DUBBED "ILLEGAL DRUG TESTERS" ARE FOUND, THIS TIME, WITH A TASTE OF THEIR OWN DRUG..... I then fell asleep wondering how I did it......
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
I woke up to hear someone knocking on my door, I woke up and walked over there, I opened the door and came face to face with a LSF officer, he had a gun pointed at my chest.....
"Alright you, get out, and no funny business." I walked out and the officer motioned for me to head for the elevator, I was about to turn and give this guy a piece of my mind when everything went black. When I came to I was sitting at a desk with five LSF officers in the room, all with blasters. "Ok guys, you know the plan" , one of the men came up to me and started talking, " So my friend, how long did you think you could pull of your act without us catching you? The LSF has been watching you from the first time you came to Liberty, and we know who you are, yes nomads are easier to spot these days, they have no idea of how to blend in." A man in a lab coat walked in, " Sir, the test is ready." The man looked at the doctor and nodded, he turned back to me and then said, " You'll now see what we do to nomads when they get a little to confident." He grinned ,turned away and said some thing to the others, they all pushed a button on their blasters, probably to small stun, they each shot and I went into a state of dizziness, they all grabbed me and carried me to the next room over.
I then saw a machine that looked like something from the ancient earth, it looked like a plain chair, except it had a arm that came over the top of the headrest then curved down, it also had different multicolored wires attached to it. They pushed me into it and the man in the lab coat said, " Alright, lets try to take this nomad out of him." I started to figure out what was going to happen, the arm was going to.....try to extract the nomad, then metal bands came out of the chair and wrapped around my waist arms and legs, I started to breathe heavily and my eyes hurt, I heard screaming, " Turn it on already! It's coming out!" I felt a jolt of electricity go through my body and then another, they jolts became more rapid as the seconds went by. But the strange thing was that I didn't feel pain, in fact, I started laughing, " What's he doing? Turn up the voltage!" But some part of me was laughing hysterically at the electricity bolts. I heard the arm coming down, " Kill them.....all of them!" The voice came into my head and then I felt my arms breaking the metal bands and grabbing the arm and ripping it off it's hinges, they pulled apart the other bands and jumping up, the LSF agents all started shooting their blasters, but when they came close to me my skin was suddenly covered with armor on that one spot that it would have hit. I grabbed the first one and kicked him in the lower back of his head and he fell over, in about twenty seconds I had taken down five elite LSF officers and a doctor. I salvaged two stun batons and four blasters. I grabbed the security pass that one of them had and ran out of the room.
I saw two officers running towards me and I dispatched of them easily, I saw more rooms full of......well I don't even know what they were. I know I will always remember what I saw in them, but yet it will always make me wonder, what happened to them? Yet I knew I would never find out. My mind came off of that once another group of officers came around the corner. I kept running and taking out LSF officers, I made it to a docking hanger and jumped into a Avenger and took off.
Just my luck. I was in Alaska. I was at Prison Station Mitchel, and had no clue how to get anywhere. All of a sudden I knew where to go, I set a way point on my nav map and started going there. I came to an opening in the clouds and saw a JG, and it was to New York. I got through the JG alright, but then I came face to face with a minefield, I was in panic, all this way and I get stuck in this stupid minefield? I let out a sigh of relief when I saw a Dreadnought come out and head towards the minefield, I formed with him and at least he knew the right way. We got out and came to a trade lane and headed to Norfolk shipyard. I left him and took the next trade lane to Fort Bush, I headed for Manhatten and docked.....
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
I flew around the various ports where I could dock until I found the one I originally had used, I landed and saw a Mammoth Liberty Transport, and some Liberty Navy men were flying my Raven's Talon into it.
I jumped out of my ship and walked casually over to where they were. I walked up to one of them and said, "Who's ship is this one?" He looked over at me, "That is none of your business sir, and I'm going to ask you to leave the area" Well, so much for that approach, so I took the diplomatic, I pulled out my gun and shot all of them. I ran in front of my ship and started jumping up and down. The man in there, being an Liberty Navy, hadn't noticed that all the ground level men were gone, so he opened up the cockpit, "Hello there, what can I....." He fell back into the seat, need I explain? I opened up the walkway to the ship and went into the pilot's seat, I picked him up and pushed him out of the cockpit and muttered, " Stupid navy." I pulled up my nav map and set course to Rochester Base. I knew I could hide there until I had a something to do. I came out and turned on my cruise engines, I then halted because I saw a fight, I flew over there and saw some Liberty Navy fighting some Outcasts and Rouges. It was two gunboats and some fighters for Liberty, and one gunboat and some fighters for the pirates, I took my pick, pirates, I then began to engage the Liberty Gunboat, that one went down and we worked on the other one, another one showed up and they left this one alone, I decided that this one was going down.......
Lt.Nagir was put out of action by The_MetaKnightMare(Gun)
After that battle, witch ended in the Liberty Navy losing miserably, I flew to Rochester and met a boy named Caballo, loosely translated means knight, he helped me out by "dealing" with the bartender into letting me have a room for the night. After that I let him tag along with me wherever I went. I collected the bounty from my earlier fight and started doing bounties, I got some money but I never really had fun, so, I decided to look in Alaska again...
I stocked up on some more supplies and fixed up my ship from the last fight, I was beginning to take off when I forgot Caballo, I remembered my promise to him and sighed, I deactivated my ship and found him, I told him where I was going and his eyes lit up, ok, rule numero uno, never tell a boy you're going to an unknown system where you could die every second, he'll spazz out. I took off with him and headed for the Fort Bush trade lane, I docked and tried to concentrate at the task at hand, but it isn't easy when some is asking you every five seconds what it will be like there, I docked with the Norfolk Shipyard trade lane and at the end of the lane, I fired up my cruise engines and headed for the jump gate, thankfully, the route through the minefield was on my nav map, I flew through the minefield and found a Liberty Navy gunboat on my tail, I overrode the gate key and docked, on the other end was a dreadnought.
I frantically turned on the cruise and dropped countermeasures like a madman, surprisingly....well no, not really surprising, he ordered me to halt and didn't do anything else, well this is the LN. I flew past him and headed to Prison Station Michel, following the Trans-Alaskan Corridor, I got there and kept flying along it, I went deeper into the system and then ran into a squad of....nomads as I later heard. I fought them but I had to admit, they were pretty good for aliens. After about five minutes I finally killed them, I then saw an Order squad, "Halt pilot, what are you doing here?" " Just exploring....." " *sigh* Pilot, if knew how many people die in this system you wouldn't be that eager...." "Si senor! But this is too fun! Viva nos!......Caballo! I told you not to do that!" " Who is that?" " Oh, a friend...." "Well I'm going to ask you to either join us.....or leave now." I heard that ever heart stopping voice again, "The answers you seek lie in the Order....." Well, it had been right so far... "Sir, I guess I'll join." Little did I know that that was maybe the worst decision I'm ever going to make.....
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
I guess I said that coming to the Order was a terrible mistake. Well, that's an understatement. At the Order you have to get everything right, you don't, then, well, let's just say that people don't look on you very highly after that all happens. I mean, destroying nomads and bounty hunters in Delta is the best target practice you're ever gonna get. Helping out recruits with stuff is also really fun, but everywhere I've been has the same routine. Get an order, do it, you mess up, then you drop lower on peoples "friendly list" here at the order I found that you can drop really fast. And the higher officials have a friendly list about as long as a Lima bean. Now I'm here at the Order where the stupid voice told me to come, so here's basically all that happened....
*Alarm clock beeping and you hear metal crunching* "Stupid thing..." It started as a normal day, well, as normal as things are in the Sirius Sector. I got up went through inspection and walked into the hanger deck, "Hey look guys! It's the little Bass! Yeah, people nickname each other according to their ship, I fly a Bastet so they call my Bass..... I have no clue. Today was just a route through Minor, nothing to expect but a few nomad patrols. We all got into our ships and launched. There wasn't much to see once you got out except rocks and dust. After heading into the field we got a call from the Osiris that our course was changed to go into Delta and fly to Freeport 10. We came through the jump hole and came into a nomad gunboat flanked by fighters. This obviously wasn't the best odds considering we didn't have any bombers. Yet our Captain was obviously in a happy mood, "Alright men! Form up and attack! Get rid of those fighters and then hit the gunboat with some mini razors! If any ships are blow to dust I'll pick you up.." Yep! There's our Captain, thinking as an optimist! Most of our squad is rookies so I charged strait into them to see if I could get their guns hitting themselves. Amazingly it actually worked, as the gunboat took out one of his own fighters. If nomads can scream, I swear that one did. And if they can curse, the gunboat was on the receiving end. I did that again but the nomad gunboat either learned his lesson or he didn't like pissed off nomads. The others came in with a formation and got two fighters down. Great three down two to go. The other fighter wasn't even a try, more like a little Rouge. Now either the gunboat has got his act together, or the nomads have finished cussing him out and are now asking for help. The gunboat was more of a problem 'cause no one knew how to fight it. I led it towards the weapons platforms in the hope that they would start firing on the nomad. Just my luck, the weapons platforms were down. (I would later find out that a nomad had gotten into one) I flipped my ship around just to see it explode into particles and I saw the reason. Two Osiris' flanked by a gunboat, the dash showed the local comms being transmitted and I tuned it to local just to hear these words, "Merry Christmas, miss us?" Now if you're ever in Delta, or any other nomad system, having two Battleships and gunboat isn't really a nomads sure sign of a good time. Mostly it's like putting up a sign that says in big flashing neon green, "Need to be killed? We are offering discounts on annihilation right now!" Getting to Freeport 10 was probably the easiest thing I've done. We got there and then called again that we should dock at Freeport 10 and await further instructions. The Osiris' were probably going to make it a little intimidating for people who come here. Then I saw two Eagle's come up, just two little CTE's flying like they didn't have a care in life. Well as I later found out, they didn't. We all docked and everyone started wandering around I headed for the bar. Yeah, yeah, drinking on the job, well, Outcasts are born addicted to cardimine and if someone catches you taking it it's like saying, "Please put me in a rubber room with a straitjacket!" They actually had pure stuff there, so I got some and sat down. I saw two people on the far side of the bar laughing with one another and I caught a snatch of their conversation, "....like blastin' nommies in Iota Jason...." I stared at them and then looked at everyone else in the bar. I saw some Order guys and some others, they hadn't seemed to notice anything wrong with the two guys over there, they were all immersed in either a conversation or looking a Sirius News. I started walking over to them and one of them saw me, he said something to his friend who turned around and saw me. Once I got close one of them said, "Well Mr. Order, what can two Freelancers do for you today?" I looked around quickly and said, "You can tell me what you were saying about killing nomads in Iota." They looked at each other and one said, "Now mate, what is this Iota?" "Don't play stupid, you're either hired by bounty hunters to scout it out, or you're something else, now then, what were you saying about killing nomads in Iota?" "Well, we can get to that soon enough, first off, intro." I suppressed a sigh as I wondered if the nomads didn't kill them 'cause they were bored to death. "Name's Griffin, and this over here is Xen, we're explorers........."
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data
