Transmission intercepted February 2005 at 03:29 / from Spartankonin

"So the boss thinks I'm somewhere in the Colorado system working on transwarp conduits and gating technology!,...Yeah! So I am home again today!!!! All paid! WhoooHaaa!!!
Oh this transmission was found floating out by the outer rims...it's encoded to you so here ya go..Hope its good news!"

<Verifying target host.....tripleHex identified and verified.....Beginning transmission>

Hey Buddy...Captain Spartankonin here...

Well anyway whilst I was wandering around the local bar lookin fer a hookup to somethin profitable I stumbled across a nicely dressed Corsair with a briefcase. He looked up at me and said "oh it's you Spartankonin." He then he told me to have a chair and we talked fer abit and he told me about the biggest Red Hessian job I had heard of to date.....316,000 credits! Whew! that was alot of scratch so I asked what was so important that the 'almighty' Corsairs had to hire outside help. Turns out they are having to mass more troops against the final confrontation with the bounty hunters tresspassing within Crete space and needed the main compliment of their pilots to go to Crete and deal with the upstart bounty hunters...Well at the same time intelligence has reported a massive Red Hessian front massing outside of Leon base in the hopes that the minimal security and lack of fighter pilots there would make it an easy target for a rush attack. I of course graciously accepted and promised him it would be taken care of most expediantly.

So I jump into my Titan and started the main engines and then I just stopped fer a second.....I stared outside the launch bay doors to the rocky field that comprised the immediate space around the camoflaged base Leon. Y'know it is actually quite lovely out here...I'm not saying I would like to build a summer home here but the way the shards of space matter and ice collide with each other around the rings of radiation coming off the dead nuetron star...well it's actually quite lovely. I engaged my engines, checked and rechecked my waypoint coordinates then hit cruise and engaged the auto-collision detection software and sat back to relax as the battle was a good 30k from my position. From this point backward I have been really riding the thin white line as I have had many close calls and several life changing events occur while trying to make a living in this region of space that no one else wants but those dirty Hessians. If it wasn't for them the Corsairs would have left this part of space long ago.

(Bwam!) Shields fluctuated fer a half a second but I didn't even flinch as I just purchased the class 10 and I really was quite full of myself. I have taken on 10 hessians alone with a class 8 and managed to walk away...damaged yes...but I lived through the encounter. 18k and approaching. I settle back into my chair and then a dark forboding came over me....I was traveling without my wingman and best friend tripleHex at the time. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew? Naw! Yer just being dumb... I pat the shield control console and whisper to myself "Class 10...Ain't no Hessian firepower gonna get through that...even if there are 10 this time." 5k and closing fast. I disengage cruise and auto-pilot and take the stick as I bring the ass end around and kill the engines just outside of contact range...." Wow. It doesn't look like this is going to be hard at all" Long range scanners picked up 3 or 4 hessians at the edge of my scanner range and they quickly turned their ships and headed my way. "Piece of cake" I say to my self as I warm up the Nomads and my new Salamanca. I felt a sort of sense of accomplishment as I settled into a regular regimen of joust once then chase as each of the 4 Hessians swam around agitated that they couldn't even make my new shields quiver much less do damage. I was a god!

Then everything went terribly, terribly wrong.

I was almost enjoying myself as the last of the 4 Hessians tried to run but couldn't outrun my new thrusters as well as my neverending barrage of Nomad energy pulsing out the end of my heavily armored Titan. I heard some radio chatter on the Hessian end then the bright red irradiated space grew dark as if a storm was approaching..I wasn't so sure this was a bad thing or good thing but I didn't quite feel right....As if something somewhere just stepped over my grave.
I tractor in the last of the loot floating by my ship and I reach to hit the cruise switch to get to next waypoint...I stop. Something is out there, and it is big. I can feel it. I shake off the feeling but I start to wonder if I should have waited for my trusted companion tripleHex to help with this mission..

Damn it! I slam the cruise switch and berate myself for second guessing my abilities and the abilities of a few lowly Hessians. I mean, even if there were 12 or 13 of them they would have to hammer on my ship for an interminable amount of time while I was standing still for them to get through. Even then they would have to deal with the 12000 point armor my ship is registered as. I'm fine. Off I go and breathe a little easier as I kick the thrusters into high gear and maneuver through the belt to my target.

Then I killed my engine and free floated..Mostly out of pure awe and shock as I quickly realize my current dillema. The skies were filled with Hessians...and when I mean filled I mean there were 20 to 24 Hessians waiting for me in souped up Sabers. All I heard was laughter on the other end of the radio chatter. I heard the continual chime as 20 targeting computers bore down to get a lock on my ship. I spun and turned the juice up to try to get serious and start from a position I can think this through from. No chance. Positron and tachyon beams as well as 3 or 4 cruise disruptors dispelled any hope of fleeing....I was alone with the most enemy ships I had ever seen in my short life in one place at one time. I punched it and laid into my charged and ready nomads but trying to follow one among twenty was near impossible. I even ran into 3 or 4 of them just trying to run down the one who was basically stringing me along in front of the rest of them like a duck shoot. My ship rocked and reeled from the continuous thrum of energy and hulls and rocks coroming off my class 10 shields which by the way were fast becoming extinct. I hit the shield battery reserve and turn my ship for another pass but by this time the skies lit up like the bright side of the planet Manhattan when the dust from Drubious comet covers it once every 10 years.

I heard my computer say shields were down again.."What! Thats impossible!" I hit the shield reserves again but not before I lost a third of my hull strength. I double wammy both my nanobots and shield reserves and turn on the one guy I had singled out to die before I did. I remember his name...Zack Brannigan Lt. colonel for the Red Hessians and a very good pilot as it would seem...I hope he makes it back to see his loved ones. Well this it buddy.. I have recorded this transmission at the end as I managed to float out away from the main compliment and I am preparing for the final joust. No bats...No bots. shields just came back at a third strength and my hull is down to 3000. If you can Hex, avenge me...I'll underrstand..djhsj....damn here they come...dg.df.h.df.....fighting!..dd.df.h.gtt....Zack is alive! ....MUTHA !!!!..........................end transmission
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Transmission intercepted 21 February 2005 at 12:04 / from tripleHex

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Beep-beep ... beep-beep

Almost shyly, the little warning indicator finally roused me from my slumber. The first thing I felt, of course, was the splitting pain. It was as if someone had taken a steel wedge and driven it directly between the halves of my brain. Of course that was just the Cretian Grog I'd been drinking since early the previous afternoon. How long had I been drinking? How much? Couldn't tell you; after leaving uptown and heading for the slums in search of an opened bar, everything is just a fog.

I vaguely remember Spartankonin blabbing something about his new shields. Was that last night? Might have been just a few hours ago, I'm not sure. But first things first; where the hell am I and what the hell is that annoying noise? After wiping the drool off my communicator console and leaning back in my captain’s chair, I realized I was in my ship. Damn! I hope to Glock I wasn't out driving this thing around last night. She may not look pretty, but what she lacks in looks, she more than makes up for in firepower. Not a piece of machinery you want to be operating while inebriated. That kind of behavior is what got us kicked out of Leon Base.

Looking around the cramped cockpit, I located the source of the beep. It's a small black box duct taped to the dash, right under the main weapons console. For a minute, with the steel wedge still separating right-brain functions from left, I could not remember what the heck that thing was. As I followed the small black wire to the main radar screen I remembered; it was my newly installed Battle Buddy(R) TeamMate Reclamation Device(TM). Sparty and I had these nifty little things installed about a week ago. What they do is trace a signal emitted by the escape pod of your fallen comrade, feeding it to your radar to allow easy rescue of stranded buddies.

So I know where I am and I know what the noise is. Problem is, that beep means Spartankonin is currently floating around in space. I can't wait to see the look on his cryogenically frozen face when I pick him up.

Now it's all starting to come back to me. Spartankonin was all gung-ho about trying out his new shields. He must have been doing Hokkiadian marching powder because I don't know how anyone in our condition last night had the presence of mind or the bodily aroma to even get a job. But he did. I remember actually climbing into the cockpit to join him in orbit around Crete; that must have been when I fell asleep. But that wouldn't stop Spartankonin. I wonder if he even noticed I wasn't there before it was too late.

Well I suppose I better go pick him up, I hope he's got his insurance premiums paid up...

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Transmission intercepted 22 February 2005 at 18:54 / from Spartankonin

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" A hangover!"

"I've been floating around in space for 3 days and you say it was because you were hungover!"

..."huh, I guess I should be thankful yer drunk ass even came and picked me up any way. Well thanks. It would have been better if we got the credits though. As it is we won't be able to get back into business until my insurance dude talks to the Corsair dude to make sure the job was covered." TripleHex walked over to his hidden storage compartment and produced a bottle of vintage Kadakian fire whiskey and two tumblers with a few blocks of ice in each.

"Hey buddy I don't know if you know this but that whiskey is illegal and if the Kadakian government knew you had it they would gang-probe you and leave you in the middle of one of their swamps with a condom hangin out of yer ass" We share a hearty chuckle over that and down our drinks. He pours another and tells me that things will get worse if they ever find out we are smuggling artifacts through freespace and selling them to the highest bidder which just happens to be the nomads themselves. I said "We are huh? I guess Kadakian whiskey is the least of our worries then." He agreed with that. "We will have to shadow our efforts as they have just put forth a final edict to all within Sirius space that all artifact smuggling transgressions will be met with brute force." We laughed again as we downed our second drink and poured another.

"Where are we anyway?" I asked as he turned up the radio chatter as a patrol of corsairs flew by. He told me we were on our way to get the big money and that the corsairs were only holding us back from the big bucks. He said now is the time to make our move as the edict from the Kadaks can only make the price of artifacts go through the roof. I calmly said "What about my ship?" He said he salvaged most everything I needed in the way of accutriments i.e. power supply, tractor, scanner, shields....All I needed was a ship to stick it in. I had more than enough funds to buy another ship without extras but since he had my stuff it was easy to hot-swap em out and in. "Great! Lets do it!" I down my third drink and jump in the navigation seat. Best to navigate while under the influence of Kadakian whiskey. The hallucinagenic properties tend to help me 'feel' the space.

Two weeks later we are floating side by side staring at the docking ring of Rochester wondering if this was the right choice. I slapped his ship with a 3 second blast from my reavers and said "Dock damn it!"

He said "You first"

I said "No you go first and I'll keep look out." He turned his ship to face me and just sat.....fer 15 minutes we sat in space around Rochester watching the various ships pass by then he chimes up, "Ok...We'll both dock at the same time."

I said, "On three? Or is it one...two...three THEN go?" He said to shut up to and dock. Thats when someone made a decision to alter the course of our lives.

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Transmission intercepted February 2005 at 19:35 / from by Aurora

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It had been a long, lonely night. No one on the air waves. No one to hunt. Oh no! Not even a lousy, "Aurora, come buy my PONY!" Just no love for me. Then I saw them, just weaveing around Rochester base. The kind of exaggeratedly careful flying that could only mean one thing. Entertainment for me! So I take a peek on the public channels.

"Duck Dammt!"

"Nyah, you! I lookee!"

There was a significant pause and a little more wobbly flying. I mean, it's gotta be difficult to hold it steady when you're so thoroughly pissed. I decided to get their attention with my pulse guns. Sudden shield loss is usually riveting, after all. Nothing. Not. A. Damn. Thing. So I scan them. They must have drunk all their cargo.

"OK! OK, OK, ok, alrighty. We goon THREE! Er. . one, two, three? ER. . . Uhgnh. . ."

"Shuddupnduck, ya drunk!"

Oh what the hell. This is just too easy. One pulse gun: ON. Two pulse gun: ON. One Wrath of Glock: ON. Two Wrath of Glock? Nah. Give the assholes a chance.

"Attention. Dock now or die."

Silence. Had they finally passed out? No, there's a little wobble there. They actually huddled together a little. Away from the docks. Aw! What cute little drunks!

"Three, Two, One. . ."

I just love pretty lights.

I tractored in their escape pods and whistled as I made my way to a special place. A quiet place. The perfect place to dry out for about a week. This place is a real giggle. Well, for me anyway, as I watch them clutch their little heads and try to find a wall to pound it against. Ah, the satisfaction of a job well done.

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Transmission intercepted February 2005 at 17:50 / from Spartankonin

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So I am apparently lying on my back....not sure how I got that way.

I slowly pan the room and take in what forms and colors my Kadakian whiskey soaked eyes can distinguish from the rest of the reddish-brown haze that dominates my vision. It doesn't look good....At least it's not a prison but it still bodes ill. As I muster the strength to move to one elbow painfully and sort of sit up. My surroundings sent chills up my spine...The walls seemed to be covered in pinkish tapestries and pictures of a purple dinosaur of some type and there is a painfully annoying sound eminating from all around. Could this be hell? I couldn't quite make out the sound but it was alot like a childrens song I had heard somewhere in some far off lifetime gratefully forgotten....til now.

A wailing groan sort of surprises me and I strain to turn my neck to the left to see what that could be. It sounded like tin cans being blended with gravel. Horrible to say the least and when I look upon the source of the outlandish noise I don't feel any better as the sight I beheld made me full force projectile vomit three and a half feet across the room. There, in a twisted, reeking mass of flesh, was my closest friend tripleHex. He neither looked human nor smelled human and from the noises he was making I was sure a hellfire demon had taken his soul and was using his body to carry out it's plan to lay there and deficate on itself. Maybe not....but it was still disgusting.

I try to collect the strength to say something to him. "Ay!" I grab my skull and scream terribly into the pink pillow under me as the sound of my own voice filled me with waves nausea and pain. Nevermind. Hes probably dead already. After what seemed like an eternity, which was closer to two minutes, I feel a cold washcloth on my forehead as a soothing voice and a gentle touch lulled me back to unconsciousness.

*****************************

"Get up!" The harsh voice wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be and I merely rolled over and looked up at a clean and bandaged tripleHex as he smiled down at me and spoke..." So we are being held against our will by very cute aliens and as far as I can tell they want to make sure we are well enough to travel on our own before releasing us. I usually don't believe everything an alien says to me but these aleins are....how can I say this.....Cute...Just cute. They make good grub though."

I try to say something but there was a tube down my throat. In shock I yank the f u c k e r out and jump up ready fer a fight. tripleHex just laughed and said, " Whoa tough guy! Hahaaha...They had to pump our stomachs more than once cuz that Kadakian whiskey is oil based and doesn't like to leave it's 'host'. Hahaha." I smacked him in the back of the head and said, " OK smart ass...whos in charge of this place?" He just shrugged and pointed to the window. I walk over to the window which seemed alot farther away than it was because my legs still felt like two niobium bricks. What I saw made me laugh and cry at the same time......
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Transmission intercepted February 2005 at 20:46 / from MaD_BaRoN_HahA

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Another sunset on another planet, they’re all different and they’re all the same. Why does Mild always run off to watch them when I don’t have him doing things? I guess that’s the price I pay for trying to train them so young, but there so much more impressionable at that age.

I’ve half a mind to send him back and find a replacement with all the running around he makes me do but then I’d have to train someone and there’s no guarantee he or she’d be any better.

Poking him in the ribs to wake him I wonder when the last time I slept was, can’t have been that long ago but with all the different planet times it’s hard to keep track.

Even with all I’ve done for him his opening comments are to complain that I haven’t let him sleep longer. Maybe I should neuter him, shouldn't affect his efficiency but might focus his mind.

“I need a message delivered” I tell him, “and that’s what I have you for”. The only response is more grumbling.

“I need you to track down 2 pilots for me and offer them a job. Offer them whatever they want... tell them the pay is transportation to a system of their choice, if they don’t jump at the job go back in 2 days and offer it again, sooner or later they’ll beg to take it.”

“Why can’t you take it, why must you always make me run around everywhere?”, he whines.

“Don’t make me hurt you any more than I need to.” Pause, “but in this instance the 2 pilots in question are outside my domain. Try not to upset anyone while you’re away.”

I upload the information he needs into his nav map only to hear him whimper, “You know what she’ll do to me if she catches me?”

I spare him a rare grin, “That’s why you’re going and not me”
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Transmission intercepted 24 February 2005 at 08:23 / from MildDiscomfort

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I stare with fear at all the blinking lights on the console in front of me, wondering just how close to death I am with every press of a button or flip of a switch. I hate flying, if Glock had intended us to fly he wouldn’t have filled space with debris.

This is my first time in the seat of a rhino, in fact the first time in any ship seat other than on my starflier and I’ll never forgive the Baron for making me fly when he could have just put me here. Not that I’m entirely sure where here is but I’m too scared of ejecting myself into space to worry about the little things, I’ll just follow the nav markers.

I can see my final destination ahead and, in a couple of minutes I’ll be back on solid ground and safety. If I kill myself while docking with a planet the Baron would never let me hear the end of it. Sometimes working for a "higher being" has its draw backs.

I’ve heard them say that the Baron talks with Glock and that Glock himself raised the Baron above other mortals, but I don’t believe in Glock. The idea that some omnipotent being has the power to re-arrange the stars and create whole systems is just daft. I’ll admit I’ve seen the Baron do some impressive things while I’ve been in service to him, but I don’t think he’s a god, probably just some really advanced alien or something. Yeah, some really advanced alien that doesn’t sleep.

10k, the planet’s pretty big, maybe I should override the auto pilot and come out of cruise? But that’d mean more time in space and more time for me to do something stupid, best I let the auto pilot do its thing.

But then once I land I’ll have to stay put till these two pilots agree to the job and that means I’ll be a stationary target if Aurora arrives in system. I hope the Baron was only joking when he said he’d give me to her if I mess this up.

Where’s the list of things I need to tell those pilots, must remember to add that they have to stay sober for the entire job, I’m bound to get blamed if they don’t. If these guys hadn’t been so drunk in the first place they wouldn’t have lost their ships and I wouldn’t have to fly this damned rhino to pick them up.

5k, what have I forgotten to do…. something to do with the approaching planet.

What’s the best way to deliver a message from a higher being to a pair of drunks anyway? The hiding in the shadows trick is fun but it’s really hard to relay a message when people’s eyes keep sliding off of you. I’m not doing the burning messenger thing again, last time I tried that I was on a space station and the fire prevention system vented me into space.

2k, something to do with the autopilot?

And then there’s the flying away bit afterwards, it’s really hard to fly when you’re on fire. And I can’t wait on planet the entire time while on fire if these guys don’t take the job straight away.

And I can’t even enjoy myself if they do make me wait, this isn’t the sort of place you go to relax. I’ll have to keep a low profile as it is in case someone notices I’m outside of the Barons domain.

The ship’s stopped, less than 300m out and it’s just stopped. Why does this ship hate me. Ok, calm down, I’m sure it’s not serious, yet. Relax. Check comms, maybe there’s something wrong with my docking req… did I send a docking request?

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Transmission intercepted 24 February 2005 at 10:31 / from Aurora

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". . . so you see boys, what comes of acting like children, don't you? For your own safety, as well as the safety of others flying anywhere near you, you had to be treated like children." They nod, hunching a little more into their seats. Funny how they won't really meet my eyes. "Now they tell me that you will be ready to be released--"

"My Lady!" What now? They KNOW I don't like being interrupted. I smile sweetly to the patients.

"Excuse me. Yes, Nurse?"

"Um, a communication from the docking ring guard, my Lady. They've intercepted a ship they thought you should see." I follow her to the next room and take a look at the screen. Could this be another drunk? No. No one is this stupid, even drunk. This one has Higher finger prints all over him. My brothers think they are so sneaky. So sly. Its cute really. I turn to the nurse.

"Have the microchips been implanted?"

"Yes, my Lady."

"Good. Let this ship land, but be sure to paint it." I wonder what they could be up to this time. It will be entertaining to find out. I stroll back into the interview room.

"Well, boys, it looks like you'll soon be leaving us. Promise to be good boys?" They nod frantically. When I smile again, they look a bit dazzled. I suppose it pays off, once in a while, being God's daughter. "And you will look after my ponies, won't you?" More frantic nods. "Well then. Why don't you go lay down for a while, hmm?" I pat them on the cheek and wander out to the fields. On the way I tap my comm link.

"Yes, my Lady?"

"Someone get on the console and track down the Kadakian High Council, would you please? They really must keep a better eye on that whiskey. . ." Such efficient staff.

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Transmission intercepted 24 February 2005 at 11:09 / from tripleHex

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I watched her walk off. I suppose I'm grateful I'm not dead, but I'm not so sure. Coming down of that Kadakian stuff is tough, it's certainly not designed for human consumption. I can still taste the crap in the back of throat. And still, every now and then my vision blurs, colors slide together, perspective changes. I can't help but wonder if this is a permanent condition and whether or not it will affect my piloting. Oh well, lesson learned; smuggle Kadakian Whiskey, don't drink it.

"So what do you think Spartankonin?" I said, "Shall we resume our original plan now that we're back to reality, or some facsimile thereof anyway?"

"Well considering you spent the last of our cash on that damned whiskey, I don't see much of a choice." Spartankonin replied snidely.

"Yeah, fun while it lasted though, besides I didn't hear you complaining to much when I brought it out."

Spartankonin snorted out a chuckle. "we're gonna have to run some peon jobs in NY to get enough funds for our ..."

"Wait, I know someone who owes me money. You probably remember him, Minnesota Joe. I helped him out of a jam involving some Team Sirus ****s up in Kusari space a while back. He's in to me for about a million, which should be more than we need. All we have to do is find him."

"What if he doesn't have it?" Queried Spartankonin skeptically.

"Oh, he will. I'm sure of it." That's the one thing I am confident of.

But something else just doesn't feel quite right. It's not just the strangness of this place or the after effects of the whiskey, I've gotten used to that. It's something else, something you can't quite nail down or put your finger on. Like some unseen person looking over your shoulder, some presence you know is there but can only grasp peripherally with your five standard senses.

I watched the surreal sun come up over the impossibly distant horizon spilling red rays though a light covering of clouds. Red in the morning ...

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Transmission intercepted 24 February 2005 at 14:30 / from Spartankonin

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"What are you lookin at?" I gaze out the window with him and we see a pretty beautiful sunset...or is it sunrise? "Hey you listenen?" tripleHex just turns his head slowly and looks right through me as if I weren't standing right next to him. "Is this the morning on this planet or evening?" He seemed to snap out of it at that point and smile. "Yeah I think we should be going. Night or day I think we had better leave before anymore 'events' occur." I looked at him and said, "Our ships are ready and sitting in dry dock...say do you think they're gonna want some sort of payment for puttin em back together?" He just shrugged and started for the door.

Now I am an easy goin guy and most of the things I have seen and done are public record but there are a few things that have disturbed even me and have kept me awake a night or two wondering if it really happened.. Those things have always been rare occurences and I have forgotten most of them but this last one still hangs in the air....as if I wasn't quite finished with the dreamworld. Damn! Snap out of it! Be reasonable...no one in the far reaches of Sirius can know what we've seen this week or most would lock us up tight where we would be no danger to ourselves or others. The drugs they would give us is an alluring thought but somehow I felt if there were something a bit more ominous on the horizon and we are being catapulted straight into it. Fer now I am content to just get back to my ship and see real space for once.

Unbelievable....at first we were drunk. Then we sobered up and found out we liked being drunk more so we went back to being drunk. Me and Hex have travelled many wastlands working for the next drink and loving every minute of it. Thats how we met actually. Y'see...

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I was free-floating end over end through Omicron Gamma perfectly content to stay passed out at the controls of my ship when a thunderous grinding and a Bwoom! woke me rudely and sent me sprawling to the cockpit floor. The ship had stopped moving and I pulled myself back into my chair and hit the blast shield so I could look outside and see what had slammed into my ship head on. The shield hissed and up it went. There was tripleHex...passed out on the control panel of his Defender and looking for all intents and purposes to be dead. I checked the scanner and sure enough he was alive and showing only slight hemotoma and bruising around the head area and the inside of the cockpit seemed to be covered with some mottled-green goop. I quickly assumed he was the victim of some biological agent and swiftly jumped on the com system and spoke..."Dude! Hey dude! Are ya awake? HEY DUDE!" His head slowly looked up from its nitch between the command console and his navigation array and said..."You call me dude one more time and i'll!" He then sprayed a rooster-tail of vomit all over the inside of his main cockpit window and fell to the floor of his ship. I chuckled fer a second until I realized I didn't feel so good either....I didn't see or hear him for quite sometime until I attempted to get the ships apart. Nada...both ships were pretty tangled up and someone was gonna have to go out there with a welder and cut us free. I jumped on the com and said.."Hey man...you still alive?..."Nothin."Anyway I think one of us should go out there and untangle our ships so we can go about or business." Whatever that might have been. I heard a wail over the com. He apperently had his microphone on the floor with him..."You go first." He said. I said, "No, I think you should go first." He then started screaming into the mic while flailing madly on the floor of his ship. I then saw a hand reach toward the ceiling of his ship as it grabbed maniacally for a hold on something to pull himself up with. Now I am about a total of 13 feet from his cockpit and see his hand methodically hitting the nav panel without any discrimination I start to get a little nervous as he is groping dangerously close to the main cruise control...I speak into the com..."Dude watch out what ya grab! Yer gonna send us both to hell if ya keep..." he rudely interrupted me and shouted, "Hey! Whoever you are! I told you not to call me du!" And thats when he hit the main cruise initiation sequence...

[Charging in 3.....2....1 I hit the mic spitting curses at him as the main cruise engines of his ship came online and thats when the fun started. First couple of boulders and asteroids we nicked weren't enough to dislodge us so we kept goin in a vague circle at a 180 degree spiral against the axis of our ships and we were doing it fast. This of course sent both of us into a fit of puking, screaming, vomiting and crying as the collective mass of both ships hurtled round and round in some sort of sick festival ride. He finally managed to hit the kill switch but as i never had any engines going all this accomplished was to send us in straight line into an oncoming asteroid.

Suffice to say we got our ships apart and spent a good portion of the next six months at Crete Memorial Hospital and Trauma Center getting to know each other...We haven't quite been the same ever since.

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We arrived in the massive launch bay area and I lean over and whisper into Hex's ear...."Why do you think everything is pink?" He just shrugged and said "Hey look!...Theres our babies." We stopped fer a moment to get a look at the only women in our lives...kinda sad really but when yer whole life has been lived in the cold desolate vacuum of space....its like looking into the eyes of an angel. A smooth pat on the back and off we go to our seperate ships and begin pre-launch sequences....It will be good to see real space. This 'area' kinda gives me the creeps. Too happy and that irritating music seems to emanate right out of the air...Hmmmmm. I smell lilacs and honeyberries. I seem to remember that sweet fragrance when we were in bad shape in the happy hut...I seem to remember...a woman.

[You are cleared for launch Captain Spartankonin..exit on five-zero-nine and we love you.

Wtf? Never mind. We both hit our thrusters and beat a hasty retreat to known space which we suspected was up. Then we are in Gamma suddenly. I come to a full stop and scan the area. tripleHex hits the com button and speaks.."Hey you wouldn't by any chance remember how we got here would you?" I just laughed and set nav map coordinates to Crete....

" Hey Hex....Lets go get a drink."

"Now yer talkin Spart..lets go!"

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Transmission intercepted 27 February 2005 at 21:59 / from MildDiscomfort

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If it wasn’t for my current situation I could almost believe there is a Glock, a message just arrived from Manouevres to say she has a lead on the two pilots, they are still travelling to Crete.

The reply she sent to my original message asked that we meet and I knew she would want payment for the last job she did. I also knew she’d want to meet at some seedy bar where the patrons have more weapons then sense. Maybe it made her feel at home.

I arrived early to clear a corner and was just testing the atmosphere to see how jumpy the rest of the clientele where when she showed up. With almost no pleasantries she asked for her last payment.

Like all the missions the Baron has me pass on I didn’t know the details, just the amount owed. The missions are always kept on a secure pad with some sort of bio metric readout thingie that I can’t access (for my own safety I’m told). But I did know that she had been over efficient on her last mission and the Baron had told me to ask about it.

I don’t know why the Baron insists on using Manouevres anyway or why I have to be the only one who sees her face to face. I don’t think he ever meets her, that’s why I choose to contact her this time, less chance he’ll find out.

I made out that I was getting a message from the Baron as I sat there to cover up not having a secure pad with the mission details on and I’m sure she bought it. Though I think the triple fee might have distracted her more. As if I could have a conversation with someone in a different system while I’m in a bar talking about a job.

Initially she took the job and it’s a good thing the Baron gives me a flush expense account, she wanted all the money up front. I offered her a bonus to keep her asking to many questions

It looked like she heard me mention using help this time as I saw her check the other patrons over after I’d faded from view. I’m not sure she appreciates how much effort it takes to do the whole shadow fading thing. The Baron tells me it’s an after market feature, but I’m not sure what that means.

Then something really unexpected happened, someone else came to my corner of the room. And for something so out of the ordinary I don’t remember very many details about them, or maybe there aren’t any details to remember.

He/she didn’t stay long but it was long enough to scare me, no-one should have gone near that corner.

After they left I was trying to puzzle out what had happened when my head felt like it was about to explode, I don’t know what happened but when I looked up I saw someone looking into the corner, looking at me. I guess with the lack of concentration I couldn’t maintain my façade but with a new found focus I decided not to be there.

I was running scared, all I remember was bumping into some weirdo playing with something in his hands, a mad dash to my rhino and hitting the auto-undock before I was fully in my seat.

I must have pressed the wrong button because as I was taking off there was a massive explosion behind me and I was knocked unconscious. As soon as my Rhino was released into space my weight against the controls choose my destination.

And that’s where I am now, lost. The explosion must have damage the rhino because I can’t transmit any further then in system. I’ve sent of a distress message, I hope someone friendly answers.

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Transmission intercepted 28 February 2005 at 01:19 / from Stone

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I hate vacuum.

Maybe I should elaborate.

It's not the fact that you explosively decompress if you're in such a phenomenon for so long; there's ways to avoid that, and with today's technology it's rare for anyone to suffer such a gruesome fate. Often, aside from accidents that involve multiple starships, the only instances of this occuring are when some idiot mistakes the airlock for the bathroom, or if you want to get technical about it, the Controlled Release and Automatic Purge room.

Don't ask me how the eggheads manage to come up with these acronyms.

No, the reason I hate vacuum is the fact that it's so damn cold. No matter how many layers of protection you put between you and the void, if you don't have the thermal control set to full blast 24/7, then often within 15 minutes, you'll catch a case of frostbite worse than if you went tightrope walking naked in a blizzard on Houston's Appalachian Mountains.

Probably not a pretty sight for most people, but I think it gets my point across effectively.

And guess where I was? Sitting right in the middle of a damn vacuum in a Stiletto that was fully operational except for, of course, the bloody heater. I was taking yet another mission against the local Xenos in the system, when I picked up the distress signal. After cleaning up the remaining ships, the mission commission told me to proceed to the next waypoint and blow more stuff up. Taking one look at the crappy commission they were paying me and the distress beacon, I flipped the bird in the general direction of ALG HQ, took amusement in the rather indignant reaction my guesture got, spun my fighter into the direction of the beacon, and punched the cruise engines.

After a few minutes of hard burning, I arrived to see a damaged Rhino drifting in space. Taking one look at the ship I saw that half the top was blown off, which meant that the comms system was certainly fried. Glancing at the IFF designation I saw the ship pegged as belonging to MildDiscomfort, and my curiousity piqued. What was this guy doing in a state like this?

Sighing, I decided to extract him the hard way. Knowing that any attempt to dock with him in this state would probably result in the demise of both of us, I put my bets on a rather unorthodox method: finishing the job the explosion did and seperate the two halves of the ship. With any luck, the automatic ejection system would see this as the imminent destruction of the ship and send Mild's escape pod to safety.

Crossing my fingers, I switched over to one my Reaver guns and gradually started stitching a line in the hull between the cockpit and the engines. It wasn't long before I was rewarded with a satisfying burst in the cockpit and the ejection of the pilot. I waited until he had cleared the ship sufficiently, then engaged my tractor beam and guided him into my hold. Once he had come to rest (rather ungracefully- his pod had a disagreement with one of the salvaged containers back there), I closed the bay doors and finished blowing the rest of the ship, knowing it was beyond help. I then tractored in the remainder of the loot and set a course back to base.

Knowing it would take some time to get there, and also confident that I had rattled enough Xenos for the day to make them leave me be, I climbed out of my seat and headed towards the now-pressurized cargo hold.

This explanation was going to be interesting, to say the least...
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Transmission intercepted 28 February 2005 at 20:32 / from MildDiscomfort

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“Please Glock, if you make them stop shooting at me I promise to start believing in you?” The only answer is more gun fire hitting my Rhino.

Taking this as proof the Glock doesn’t exist I turn to plan-B and start whimpering.

Moments later I feel the rhino start to break up. The ejection system warning light gives me half a second to change to plan-C before the cryogenics activate.

“Arrrrrrr……”

“……rrrrrggghhhhh.” The sudden change of scene stops me screaming. Instead of the vacuum of space I’d been looking at a second ago I was now seeing a bulk head. Then I see the human standing next to me and more specifically the weapon in his holster. I quickly think through my available options and revert to plan-C.

After a few seconds the human starts to seal the escape pod again so I stop screaming and revert to plan-B, keeping plan-A on stand by.

The human, obviously happy with my new tactic, stops trying to seal the escape pod back up and glances across at me.

“Enough screaming for now?”

“Sorry, please don’t kill me.”

“Now why would you think I would want to kill you?”

“Because you blew up my ship.”

“Oh, that.” Pause “I guess I can see how that might look bad from your perspective, but it was the only way I could see of rescuing you.”

“You’re not going to kill me?”

“No.”

“Promise?”

“No.”

Deciding that at least he’s being honest and if he’d have wanted to kill me he’d have done it by now I start to relax. “I guess I should Thank you for saving me then Mr…”

“Stone, and it’s not a problem, I was in the neighbourhood and needed the distraction. What are you doing way out here anyhow?” He asks as he helps me out of the escape pod.

“I was knocked out and I think I slumped on the controls.”

“Well, you’re lucky some Xenos didn’t find you first, they’re prone to shooting first and… well, I don’t think they get to the second part too often.”

“Thank you, again” I tell him. I look all around me to assess my current location and notice a cockpit, guess it was too much to hope that I’d be on a station. Then I notice that the ship is travelling at cruise and there’s no-one at the controls.

Not noticing my sudden fear Mr Stone sits himself on one of the containers that fill his cargo hold and looks me up and down. “So, MildDiscomfort,”

“It’s just Mild,” I say absently, still staring at the unmanned controls.

“If you don’t mind me asking, exactly what species are you?”

What a silly question, but as I go to reply I realise I don’t have an answer. No-one has ever asked me before and no-one has ever told me, it’s just something I never thought about. “I don’t know.” I say slowly as I try to follow this new line of thought.


"What do you mean you don’t know, what planet are you from?”

Again I have no answer, my memories don’t go back that far, in fact the first thing I remember is the day I met the Baron, nothing before that.

I reply “I don’t know,” a little quieter than the last time.

“You must have knocked you head pretty hard. I’ll get a medic to take a look at you when we dock.” He jokes, but I know that isn’t the reason I can’t remember.

Changing the subject I ask, “So what do you do Mr Stone that has you out here?”

“It’s just Stone, and I’m a freelancer. I was out here clearing Xenos out of the area for the ALG when I got your message.” He chuckles, “I don’t think they have need of my services anymore though.”

So, an out of work freelancer who doesn’t want to kill me, “I might have a job for you if you’re interested.” Please don’t let the Baron check my expenses.

“What type of job?”

“First, I need someone to take me to Crete. I’m not sure what I’ll need after that but I can pay well.” And it can’t hurt to have a pilot on hand. “But while you think about it, is there any chance you could turn the heater up?”

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Transmission intercepted 01 March 2005 at 14:16 / from Stone

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I nodded. "Crete it is, but we'll need to make a stop somewhere else first, real quick. This ship isn't exactly tailor made for surviving a trip out there; the Corsairs and I are ok, but it's a mutual respect thing. If they see me in a ship weaker than theirs it's all over."

Getting a nod from Mild, I motioned for him to come and join me in the cockpit. Buckling in, I realized my ship was only several klicks out from our destination, the Colorado jump hole. You may ask why I don't take the jump gate like most respectable folks do; my main reason is after a hard day of blowing pirate tails out of the water, I tend to pick up a bit of Cardamine or recently, if I'm really unlucky, Kadakian Whiskey. The Cardamine I usually keep and sell to the nearest Junker, but the whiskey... I jettision that and blow it on the spot. Nobody's willing to pay a dime for that crap.

Thing is, whenever I forget I have something like that in my hold, some police hotshot always scans me and decides I'm smuggling. I always give it to him, but I figure it's not worth the hassel.

Then, having to bulldoze through several squads of Xenos isn't exactly my idea of a stroll in the park, but at least it's more fun.

Except those pirates usually weren't in whatever tricked out Falcons armed with PPX-9 guns.

"What the..." I stammered. "They rarely have Startrackers this far in Liberty space, let alone... ****." This was bad. My other fighter might have been able to tackle these guys, but a Stiletto with only Reaver guns and a couple of Sunstalkers didn't stand a chance.

"LISTEN UP!" I winced as a loud, gruff voice that sounded like it belonged to a person who's smoking habits involved 4 packs of Bretonian cigarrettes a day. "You have something we want. You can either give him to us, or we can take him by force. Any other day I'd be itchin' for a fight, but I'm feelin' real generous today."

This definately wasn't something that happened every day. I whipped my head around and glared daggers at Mild. "It's you he wants, isn't it? Who the hell are you?"

Seeing the open and closed mouth guestures he was making, and the twitchy eye movements he was making, I decided that I wasn't going to be getting any answers right this minute. I turned around and put my head in my hands, thinking.

Just as I had inspiration, the voice came on the radio again. "Times up, slick. Wanna slide or die?" I switched my end on. "Hold your horses, hotshot. He's on his way. I know when I'm beaten." I flicked off the radio and turned to Mild, who by now looked like was about to piss himself. Pulling my gun out of my holster, I trained it on him.

I didn't tell him to haul ass into the escape pod, though. ****ing my head to the hold, I whispered, "c'mon... I have an idea. But don't think of trying anything funny, or I'll cap you faster than you can say 'anal misery'". Right now I didn't trust this guy farther than I could spit a Titan.

Entering the hold, I pointed to a container that was small, yet when we hefted it, it felt like it weighed a ton. Working together, we managed to push it into the escape pod and seal the hapless crate in. Then I motioned for Mild to join me back in the cockpit.

Apparently his mind finally started working enough for his mouth to operate. "What good is that going to do? As soon as they find out I'm not in that pod..."

I grinned in a manner that shut him up, mainly because it made me look like a homicidal maniac. I practiced it often. "As soon as they find out that you're not in the pod, they'll have about 4 seconds left to wail their hearts out before they enter the next life." He got the picture and nodded, and buckled himself in, muttering things that I probably didn't want to overhear.

"Alright, he's on his way. Careful, he's a bit volatile when cornered." I grinned again as I held up a remote that would trigger the anti-matter charge I had salvaged in an earlier mission against the Xenos, and was now stuffed in the escape pod that had just left my hold.

"Wise choice, dickhead. I was looking for a fight, but I'm not about to pass up free money." Came the reply as the tractor beam shot out and snagged the pod. "Stay there while we check and make sure you're not jacking us."

"I'm not going anywhere, don't worry." I shut off the intercom and snickered again. Mild looked at me like I was mad, which wasn't entirely far from the truth.

Controlled insanity is the best kind, often. And the most fun.

Over the intercom I heard the pirate yelling in the background for the imaginary prisoner to come out, which he didn't. After a while, he continued to not come out. Finally the yells stopped, followed by the sound of a weld torch being used. After a few seconds, a loud *CLANG* was heard, followed by a "HOLY ****". No longer bothering to hide my glee, I went on the comm and gave my best maniacal laugh, and pressed the detonator on my remote to trigger what was now a bomb that had deployed inside the pod during transit, and had a piece of paper taped to it that said "Yippe Ki-yay, mother ****er". At the same time, I put everything I had into the thrusters, blasting away from ground zero.

The resulting explosion engulfed all four falcons, and nearly caught my ship as well. Because we were already moving so fast in the other direction though, it only rattled the ship a little and drained the shields to about half. By the time the fireball dissipated into the vacuum, only bits and pieces, and one very badly damaged falcon with all but one wing gone, were left.

I turned to Mild and grinned normally. "Sorry, I'm not normally like that, but I have a reputation as a psycho pilot to keep with these whackos." My grin turned to a frown. "Now I think it's time you and I had a little chat about who and what may have sent these your way, and why that person would do so in the first place."

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Transmission intercepted 01 March 2005 at 15:46 / from MaD_BaRoN_HahA

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The more I read the report in front of me the more I played with the idea of letting Manouevres make me a Mild skin rug. Or maybe a seat cover for my Slave Freighter?

I couldn’t have others thinking I would tolerate him losing a ship, even just a Rhino. Not only would it show others what happened when they upset me it would also leave no way for Aurora to save her beloved ponies.

As I got to the end of the report I sighed, there didn’t appear a lot else I could do about Mild for the moment. Manouevres had lost him after he’d taken off from their meeting and when she’d finally located his ship it had been destroyed.

The ship had been in the middle of Xeno occupied space but I knew the Xenos wouldn’t touch him. One of the son-of-god perks I enjoyed was being able to access every organisations systems to make them see any IFF I gave them as friendly (or unfriendly if that suited me better). But they wouldn’t have rescued him either, Xenos aren’t known to pick up downed pilots, not even their own, and Manouevres had said that the escape pod was missing.

The ALG were the only other organisation in the area but if they’d picked Mild up I would have heard about it by now. So the most likely explanation was a freelancer, which meant Mild was probably on his way to Crete again.

Mild, Glock bless his soul, would still be trying to track down the 2 pilots, what he lacked in other areas he made up for in determination and single minded devotion. And with the finances he had available he could easily convince some freelancer to help him, he could even buy a fleet of battleships to do it with for that matter.

I got up and walked across the room, I tend to think better with a drink in my hand.

And while I didn’t know where Mild was chances were good that no-one else would. Anyone trying to follow his path would probably come across the Rhino wreckage and think him dead, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as I’d first thought.

As I was choosing what to drink I saw the bottle of Xhadin Mhyr on the bar and smiled. Personally I couldn’t stand the stuff but I knew a few Dom’Kavash that’d like to get hold of a bottle or two. Who knew that it’d have such an affect on their physiology?

I opted for something a little less volatile and thought about arranging for more Kadakian whiskey to be shipped to the nomads, a little token of my appreciation for the upcoming invasion.

With the Kadaks busy trying to track down the source of the whiskey smuggling, little earlier than planned but not totally disastrous, and Aurora soon to be occupied trying to save her ponies the Nomads would be halfway here before anyone knew anything.

I was hoping to supply the Kadaks with the bodies of the 2 pilots, but as Mild hadn't caught them up yet I’d have to convince the Kadaks that I’m not behind the whiskey smuggling some other way. I need them to believe that they can trust me more than the rest of Glocks crew, I’ll never be as trusted as Aurora but I can settle for second, for the moment.

I leaned back on the sofa I’d seated myself on and tried to relax a little, all this plotting can’t be good for blood pressure. Maybe later I’ll take my Black Death for a spin, a few kills normally help relieve the tension.

Aurora had her ponies to help her relax, though soon they’d be the source of her biggest problems. Milds little gift would soon be doing wonders for the price of pony meat, maybe I should have stocked up a little more. It’s not that I’m anti pony so much as my little power play will work so much better if she’s distracted and nothing should distract her more than a little mass pony-icide. All that time creating Mild was about to pay off, he’d soon be the only thing Aurora focused on while I did other things.

Without Mild there would be no way for her to analyse the pathogen he carried and spread with every breath he took. Any small samples of his DNA she found might tell her he was the cause but without all of him she’d never be able to create an effective cure. In just a few days the first of the ponies the Mild had met would unexpectedly die, but not before they had spread the disease to other ponies. By now the entire pony population of the planet I’d sent Mild to was probably infected. And knowing that Aurora almost always travelled with a pony companion she’d have spread the disease to every planet she’s visited since she first encounter my little genetic experiment.

Mild, the only creature I’ve ever met who’s scared of ponies, would be responsible for their biggest demise in numbers, even though I’m sure he doesn’t even know what a pony is. From the Stories I remember Manouevres telling him I imagine he thinks they’re bigger than a capital ship and just as dangerous, and he’s about to kill millions of them.

With Aurora busy trying to save her ponies the Kadaks will turn to me. As the Nomads invade the other clans will follow their lead and I shall be the one to guide them to victory.

When the dust settles those left will remember who it was that guided them to victory.

I can almost hear them worshiping me already < laughs evilly >.

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Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 10:12 / from Aurora

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I left the bar, chuckling. Having seen the little shadow-cat in person, I finally recognized what should have been obvious. The Baron was playing with me. He has a flair for the dramatic, and I'm sure he knew just how to peak my curiosity. I hadn't realized he was making such use of the guild freelancers. Interesting.

When I got back to my ship, however, my laughter died. Sugarlump was down. Not rolling in a pasture down, a sight that never fails to cheer me up. No, this looked like Strangles. I rushed to her side, thankful that I was on planet. I stroked her velvety neck, wincing when I encountered the lumps under her jaw and even starting on her face. As I glanced to her feed bin, I noticed that her rations for the last day hadn't been touched. Fever, swollen lymph nodes, refusing food and water. . . I touched her thoughts and was almost sucked into the deep depression and whorls of pain. For an animal, being sick is a permanent thing. They are so in the moment that they cannot conceive of ever having been well or ever getting well again. I soothed her as best I could, wrenching my thoughts from hers. She looked at me with absolute trust, trust earned because I had never once failed her. I vowed not to fail her this time.

I ran to the comm link to call for a vet. Thank Glock I'd started a herd here and had subsidized the very best vet I could find. While waiting for him to arrive, I put hot packs on Sugar's neck and face, hoping to draw the infection to the surface rather than let the abscesses break inside her. She could die from complications like that. Then I gave her some bute, hoping to back down the fever and ease the pain. I'd have to destroy the ship to stop the infection from spreading, but I didn't mind. What are limitless resources for, if not to use?

When the vet arrived, he surveyed my work with approval and took a sample of the copious mucus to confirm the suspected diagnosis. Don't want to go slinging around anti-biotics unless we're sure, after all. I directed him to the lab and stayed to comfort Sugar. Where could she have been exposed to this? I am very careful about such things. There is nothing in her memories to explain this. No sick-smell horse she touched noses with, no shared water troughs. . . Strangles isn't usually air-born. . .

"My Lady, you need to come see this," the vet calls through the comm link.

I leave Sugar and make my way to the lab. "What is it?"

"Well, I don't know." He remains calm under my glare. "What I can tell you is that this isn't Streptococcus equi. I've never seen anything like this before. It almost looks like a feline disease, but I've never heard of a cat being able to give a horse an infection before." I force myself to breathe. He steps away from the microscope, and I take a look. It is indeed odd. Something new. Something feline. Something that we couldn't fight.

"And antibiotics?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"They won't help until we've isolated the organism. And as for a vaccine. . .well, you know we'll have to find the carrier before I could develop that." I nodded absently, making my way back to the meadow-hold.

*********************

Its been two more days, and Sugar is not better. The infection has spread at an alarming rate. We've coaxed the abscesses to the surface, but they just keep forming. The pain meds don't work and her fever is out of control. Worse even than this are the reports. Yesterday, my hospital called. Half the herd is dead. The rest are down. I've stopped all traffic in and out of that port. Thank Glock they haven't had any traffic since I left. That quarantine should slow the spread.

Sugar's breathing is getting labored. I can sense her confusion, her sense of betrayal. Why am I letting this happen? Those needles have always meant that I was making her better before. Now all we are able to do is draw blood for more tests. I leave all that to the doctor and spend most of my time in Sugar's thoughts, sharing her pain. Standing as long as I can between her and her pain. Taking her back to happier memories, my helping her take her first wobbly step to her mother, my delivering her own foals, our romps through many meadows, the thrill of a long, wild run. . .

"My Lady?" I'm tempted to ignore the vet, but perhaps he's found something. I look up, disentangling myself from Sugarlump. "My Lady, even you can't do this forever. This infection is so virulent you know that we no longer have any hope of saving her." I nod, glancing back down to Sugar's pain-wracked body.

"Then Doc, I must ask you to perform one last service for Sugarlump." He nods, relieved that he doesn't have to try to convince me. I merge again with Sugar as he fills another hypo with something much quicker than this infection. The least I can do is ensure that she will not die alone. Holding her pain away, I am the one who feels the prick of that final needle, the hot rush of the injection. She only feels my love for her and, perhaps, my grief. Then it's over.

I walk the vet back out of my ship. "This planet is quarantined," I tell him. He nods, knowing as I do that most of this herd, too, will soon die. "You find me a cure. I'll find you a carrier." He nods again. I return to my ship and launch. Then I nuke the docking ring to the planet. They won't be replacing that any time soon. Then I hit the self-destruct button. I know that this ship, this very body, is contaminated. I'll just have to make another.

"Four, three, two. . ." There are some lines you just don't cross. "One. Self-destruct. . ." The Baron has just crossed one. "initiated. Good-bye!"

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I walk into Blumybahs office and slap a picture down on his desk. "$500,000,000 for this creature. Alive. And I'm wanting to hire several of your pilots. Two by name, I've heard they do excellent work. They will find the pay more than adequate." Blumy looks up at me and blinks.

"Certainly. I'll send this pic out immediately. All our pilots, on a job or not, will see it. I'll be sure to replay it every hour. Now who did you want to hire?" Blumy thumbs through the personnel files.

"Spartankonin and tripleHex."

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Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 12:33 / from Manouevres

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Tracking down Mild after his accident was no easy task, I found the wreckage of the Rhino, and followed the trail of the distress beacon to even more wreckage - not headed toward Crete as I’d supposed. I guess Mild is doing better than I would have given him credit for, but if the little runt is going to survive beyond being useful to the Baron I suppose I will have to teach him some decent piloting skills, he doesn’t know that he carries the modified form of streptococcus - it wouldn’t be too hard to engineer an antidote from him, which is where I come in. The traffic on the airwaves was hotting up about the two pilots, it seemed the UFO was now trying to track them down, if I was to get to them first, I would need to hurry. I can only wonder what the Baron needs two of the best pilots in Sirius for...

A new blip on my long range scanners, I’ve been quartering the area for almost seven hours - could this be the one?

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Meanwhile inside the ship, Mild, although scared, feels that this freelancers honest and that he had saved him and good signs, so curls up in the seat and nudges the heater vent in his general direction, mildly happy to be heading towards the two pilots once again, and rejoicing that he doesn't have to fly, its not that bad, his second time in the vacuum had not nearly been so scary as the first. Stone turned to him 'so who do you work for? That Rhino didn’t have the standard livery - reminds me of something I’ve seen before...'.

'Errm...' Mild stalls - he can’t think of any excuse! Tell the truth or bluff? Aagh!'

The comm link is his saviour!

*****************************

'Freelancer Stone, this is Manouevres-Gamma-Seven-One, I'm looking for some kin of mine. My scanners indicate that you have another life-form on board, please confirm'

... a long pause ...

'This is Stone, I do indeed, and this 'life-form' agrees he knows you, though wont confirm how'...

I can imagine - Mild wouldn’t want to admit to knowing me too well in case this turned out bad for him.

'Manouevres requesting to dock with your ship, I think i can explain things better face to face'', the pilot Stone cagily replies, 'Dock request accepted - deploying', I deftly flip the ship over and join the airlocks.

The seals connect and lock so I head to the airlock - I don’t bother to pick up any weapons as I know Stone will scan me before he even thinks of letting me on board - besides, I dont wish to appear too hostile. Popping my head through the airlock i am unsurprisingly met by the muzzle of a gun, grinning I say, 'Hey, easy with that thing - you could hurt someone', Stone pales and backs away, possibly the friendly grin had too many teeth showing.

Mild meanwhile has found the nearest dark corner by a bulkhead to try to hide in and is making mewling sounds, 'Stone, this is my little brother, he ran away from home,' and directed at Mild 'and he doesn’t realise the trouble he's in'. I almost cringe at the lie, the idea of my blood tainted by having something in common with Milds is almost enough to make me ill.

I can see Stone comparing my face to Milds, it’s a good thing humans don’t recognize one furry face from another and I hope he mistakes my large size for me being female or older, or something, and not a different species

“I guess you could be related, though he’s defiantly a lot younger than you if that is the case. He’s banged his head pretty hard so I’m not surprised he can’t give me many details about you, i’m glad you managed to track him down' says Stone, 'Thank you for looking after him Stone - may I reimburse you for the trouble?' I say, glaring at Mild sternly and credit Stone's account with a hefty sum.

'Come here Mild', he glumly tears himself away from his corner and sidles up to me, 'go on then, into the ship, we've a long journey to get home' pushing him toward the airlock, 'Thanks again Stone - I hope he was no trouble - he is a bit loopy in the head you see', 'No problem' the freelancer grins.

As I quickly disengage the ships and hit cruise, a message flashes up on the comms link making me grin. Such a large bounty could only come from Aurora, I guess she’s found Milds little gift.

A look at the little fur ball sat nervously behind me, if he knew how much Aurora wanted him he’d probably keel over, especially if he found out that he was carrying a modified form of streptococcus.

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Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 13:28 / from Stone

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As soon as they were away, I dropped the grin. Something was obviously wrong here.

The fact that Xenos had come out of nowhere and nearly blew the **** out of us just to get their hands on that... whatever he
was, had sent alarm bells going off in every corner of my head. They'd intensified, not lessened, when this female version of what Mild looked like came and took her "brother". I was no fool; I'd done a thorough scan on the unknown ship and its
lifeform, but did something that most scans couldn't; I scanned my own ship and compared the other lifeform to Mild. Despite
her claims, the bone structure and molecular makeup definately marked them as different species.

What's more, my scanners were also much more fine-tuned than most; it picked up an unkown virus being carried on Mild's
body, one that was highly contagious but, fortunately, appeared to not affect humans. Needless to say, though, my paranoia
had me wanting to go to the first biomed facility to get this thing gone and out of my system.

First thing's first, though; no amount of money could dissuade me from a good adventure, or a chance to get into a volatile
situation and seriously screw around with things. Tracking Manoeuvres's ship on scans, I loaded my cruise disruptor with
a special round and fired it. Rather than firing a missile, though, it fired a tiny projectile that, upon contact with her ship, clamped itself to the hull. She wouldn't have noticed my even firing it, much less the impact of a tracking device that wasn't much larger than the average human thumb.

Once the device started transmitting to my computer, I punched in a course to West Point, satisfied that I could catch up with my quarry at my leisure. First a trip to a doctor on that station (who owed me a couple of favors), and then to the equipment dealer. Not only could I buy myself some better equipment with the cash now burning a hole in my pocket, but I had salvaged several PPX9 guns in the wreckage of the damaged ship that survived the anti-matter explosion. Those would be extremely useful in the near feature, I imagined.

Things had been quite boring as of late. With recent events, things looked to become extremely froody, to put it in the words
of one of my favorite authors.

I started whistling a tune as I headed to the Manhattan tradelane, and blasted a couple of Xenos that were unlucky enough to be in the same place as me, with the help of some local Outcasts...

___________________________

Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 13:40 / from Kadak3

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The case to the tracking device closed with a sharp metallic click. Shortly after the humans docked with the unmapped base, the tracking device chirped and showed a 'no signal' display. It was not entirely unexpected. the humans would be sure to find the implanted chips sooner or later. With the homing device gone I might actually have to put some effort into tracking the two freelancers. This was not something I was unprepared for, but it would be unpleasant all the same, especially if they decided to split up. I decided that since both humans must surely know the source of the Xhadin Mhyr, perhaps one of them would be more easily "convinced" to disclose this information to me or to a Kadakian Inquisitor. Of course, if I could not "convince" the human to give me what I wanted, there would not be much left to turn over to the Inquisitor. Most species never live through a Kadakian interrogation, but I had to admit that the human sessions were my favorites.

I was mulling over the various methods of interrogation I would use with the human during our "discussion" when I saw the two humans fly from the base and turn towards the nearby planet. I quickly moved in to follow only to find that they were docking yet again. I knew that the resources on this planet were few and that most freelancers found only the shipyard here of any value. A quick scan of the humans' ships showed no extra equipment, so if indeed they were here to purchase ships they would have to purchase them without shields or any serious firepower. I grinned and decided that if they undocked with new ships, one of them would die before the dock ring tractor released his ship.

While waiting for the humans, I received a report from the Intelligence Agency that the message sent by the rhino had been intercepted. The message originated from a certain MildDiscomfort on a bandwidth ususally reserved for Deity. The message was intended for a Manouveres. The message was essentially asking for assistance with two human pilots, presumably the two humans I was currently following.

I knew that MildDiscomfort was working for the Baron. Why would the Baron want these two freelancers? A job maybe? That was unlikely since the transmission indicated that this MildDiscomfort creature was now seeking a third party for assistance with the pilots, thus further insulating the Baron from the freelancers. I quickly ran a search through Intelligence for Manouveres. The report back was not good. A half Chelgrian with a record too long to look through. Considered very dangerous. Wanted by a list of governments again too long to look through. "Very interesting." Perhaps the Baron was as concerned about the arrival of Xhadin Mhyr in Sirius as the High Council was and had taken it upon himself to locate the source.

"Damn," I slammed a fist against the console. With the Baron tracking the two humans I would have to make a decision very quickly. I could still kill one of the humans and take the other for questioning. I would have to answer to the High Council and possibly incur the displeasure of the Baron. Or, I could just lay low and follow these two until I received instructions from the High Council on how to proceed now that the Baron was obviously involved. I was not entirely convinced that the Baron was concerned about the Xhadin Mhyr, or what he wanted with the humans. I decided that discretion would be more appropriate at this point in time. I reluctantly turned the Predator back towards the base and put some distance between myself and the docking ring.

Dealing with Deity or even demi Deity was not something I liked to do. I shuddered with the recollection of my encounter with Aurora. The impudence, the arrogance, and the Glock awful smell of that creature she insisted on keeping with her. Still, perhaps if the Baron was involved it would be better for my mission, not to mention my life, to entice Aurora to the table. I wondered how she would react when I gave her the information about her timid little visitor, his benefactor, and the transmission to the half breed. I reached over and flipped on the comm switch. "Please connect me with Aurora's personal line............"

_________________

Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 15:44 / from MildDiscomfort

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The grin Manouevres gave me over her shoulder made me more nervous as if it wasn’t bad enough being stuck on the same ship with her. She seemed amused at whatever message had just popped up on her comms, hopefully whatever it was didn’t have anything to do with me.

Those pilots that had attacked Stone bothered me and it wasn’t just that he’d killed them, they had threatened to attack him first. It was that they were looking for me, what had I done to anyone to deserve attention? I must have been that explosion I’d caused back at the bar, I couldn’t think of any other reasons.

But on a happier note I was in familiar company again, on a warmer ship and Manouevres had said we were going home. But then she’d also told Stone I was her brother so maybe she’d lied about that as well.

“Are we really going home?” I ask, almost begging. The Baron might be cruel to me at times but he was my master.

“No, you still have a job to do. Do you still have the mission pad you were meant to give tripleHex and Spartankonin?”

“Yes, I always keep it on me. It’s the only thing I have left from the Rhino.”

She nods, “the Baron isn’t happy that you lost that ship.”

“I know, he’ll probably but me back in a shock collar when we get home.” I say glumly. If her smile gets any bigger I’m worried she’ll strain something and I’ll have to fly.

“So where are we headed?”

“Crete, mostly. I need to stop at a few planets on the way.”

Now she has my full attention, “will I be allowed off the ship?” I ask hopefully.

I don’t believe it, her grin just got bigger, “sure, the Baron has asked that I make sure you get to breathe some fresh air and meet the local… livestock.”

*****************************

This is the third planet we’ve been to since Manouevres picked me up, she doesn’t stop long but seems keen for me to get out and stretch. It feels good to walk on solid ground, I’ve spent some much time in space recently I’d forgotten how good it felt.

I think she’s stopping on all these planets so she can adjust her rifle or something, it’s all she seems to do once we land. We wonder out to the more rural areas, she sets up some targets and wonders a long way off to shoot at them.I’d probably have got bored of this by now but she’s shown me these big dog like creatures that seem to inhabit all the planets we’ve visited so far. They’re really friendly and Manouevres encourages me to feed them sugar cubes so they come closer, I don’t think she knows that much about them because every time I ask her what they’re called she wonders off.

Manouevres is walking me around her ship at the moment, trying to get me interested in flying. I think she’s worried that the Baron will blame her for me braking the Rhino, don’t see how, it’s not like the Baron asked her to keep me out of trouble. All of a sudden I hear her start to curse loudly, “For the love of Glock!” So sees my confusion and carries on, too angry to remember to snarl at me, “some fatherless son of a Kadak put a tracker on my ship.”

I look at where she’s pointing and only see the engine.

“There, on the engine intake!” she points again, “there’s no way to remove that without removing the whole intake, that’s a major job.” She storms back into the ship and starts pushing buttons and growling at screens. “We don’t have the time to waste in dry dock, I’m going to see if I can jam the signal it’s putting out.”

I don’t know if she does jam it, but within 10 minutes we’re back in space heading to the next planet on her list.

__________________

Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 20:41 / from tripleHex

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Meanwhile back on Crete...

"Looks like a new bounty." I said scanning my inbox.

"Yeah, so what." Spartankonin said.

"It's huge. Biggest I've seen since ... biggest I've seen period."

"Yeah?" he was a bit more interested now.

"Half a billion."

"Shut the -Expletive Deleted-up. Go get another drink." back to disinterested.

"No this is for real check it out." I tossed the comm unit to Spart.

The trip to Crete had been rather calm once we got into Gamma. It's kinda ironic I guess, in this galaxy where we can travel literally millions of kilometers in to blink of eye, the best place to lay low is a tiny rock floating in space. As long as that rock is covered with people. Especially if those people are mostly Corsairs. If Corsairs value anything, it's privacy. You don't see many bounty hunter's flying around Gamma, those that do are usually being shot at.

The other nice thing about Crete is that we'd built up quite a network of supporters. It would've been hard to make the cash we needed without sending off too many signals, but Spart and I knew several fixers who got us some good paying jobs that were "off the record." I'll tell ya, If there's money to be made doing something, some mother****er's got to be getting paid for not doing it. Government Service Taxes, Tariff Commission Taxes, Usury Fees, Various System and Planetary taxes and Fees, not to mention all the sundry licenses, marshal fees, annual UFO fees, the list goes on. Come to think of it I haven't paid my UFO fees for quite a while, hmm. And if it's not government agencies, then it's the cut you've got to give the fixer, or the crime family. Death and taxes either way. Choice is yours, the only difference is that the GA way sends out ripples of information through a bureaucracy that's so corrupt and widespread it makes the Corsair Mafia seem monastic.

At any rate we'd been here about a week, recovering from the whiskey, building up funds. We ran several low-key jobs and pulled in a few markers. But now there was this, half a billion for this guy, alive. The UFO had sent the dispatch, which was funny since I hadn't paid my dues lately.

"Glockdamn! you're right." Spart exclaimed.

We had enough funds to accomplish our original goal, but this was almost too good to pass up, kadak tailing us or not. We've already been able to outfit our ships quite nicely thanks to a favor I pulled in from a smuggler buddy of mine. We were able to procure some of the finest equipment this side of the Warzone, we were ready for anything. But I didn't like it. What did that guy do to get such a price on his head? Who offers that much bounty? This was too good to be true. And there was still the matter of the kadak.

"Alright get in your ship," Spartankonin said, instantly upbeat. I had a feeling that any semblance of choice I had in the matter was all but an illusion at this point, "we're leaving now!" confirmed Spart.

__________________

Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 21:44 / from Stone

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I know it wasn't a big tracer, but it sure took them a damn long time to find it. I had been waiting for them to find it; it was more of a temporary measure to keep tabs on them while I R&R'd. When they finally did, though, I had completed my outfits and my checkup long beforehand (and repaired my heater... sweet, sweet warmth) so that I was already back in space and using my advanced sensors to track the two. At the third planet they visited, the tracking device finally stopped transmitting.

About damn time, I mused. I switched to my backup and started using my long range sensors to pinpoint their general location. Standard sensors not only operated in the same general range, but when someone was detected by such a device it made the ship using the equipment stand out like a sore thumb. Using more passive sensors prevented such detection, for the most part. They weren't as specific in their pinpointing, but they could be switched back to active mode with the press of a button.

While I was reading the newsnet, I also noticed that there had been a 500 million credit bounty placed on the person that had been in my hold a few days back. Apparently I had been carrying a bloody gold mine in my ship. Apparently I could have turned him in, or maybe even helped him out. Apparently a lot of things. No sense in dwelling over the past if you can't learn anything from it.

A little while later I picked them up leaving the planet. I doubted they'd be able to pick me up 25k away, but I made sure my new PPX9 guns were active, along with my two new Firestalker missile launchers.

You don't get where I am without having a healthy sense of paranoia.

As they made distance, I followed and did the same, staying about 30k away. With my knowledge of the jumphole network, it would be easy to guess where they were going...

The hunt was on.

__________________________

Transmission intercepted 02 March 2005 at 21:46 / from Glock36

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My central control chamber is round and dark. The ceiling is highest in the center and slopes downward toward the outer edges. In the center, a single elaborately comfortable reclining device that looks much like a cryochair appears to be extruded from the floor. All around the edges of the room, there are viewplates. They provide the only light in the chamber. All I need. I can see in many spectrums of light and radiation because I am God.

I am Glock36, the father of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Valkyries who protect the ponies.

I DO EXIST. Otherwise, you would not.

Along with my assistant, Sinister, I create new systems and worlds and rebuild old ones. I create reality itself and control it.

My purposes are veiled. But my viewplates show all.

I find it humorous that some do not believe in me yet call on me when they feel that death is near. So HUMAN. HAaaaaaaaaa. Even God is not perfect. I am still attempting to decide if Humans were a mistake.

As I watch my viewplates, I note with some dissatisfaction that my DemiGods are not getting along.

One of them seems intent on being worshiped.

I am not pleased.

And his methods are most distasteful.

I will watch further.

__________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 12:54 / from Stone

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I was feeling troubled.

Rumors were beginning to circulate that some planet had been placed under quarantine by none other than Aurora herself, due to a massive virus that was attacking most of the local animal life, but mostly the pony herds that she was tending to. Considering it was the planet that I had rescued Mild above, I was beginning to wonder if that was the reason for the huge bounty that she had placed on his head.

Actually, I was almost certain of the fact. I had done a little independent study/research on a sample of the virus that had taken a little joyride in my ship, and found that its favorite targets were felines, canines, and, most of all, horses. Thankfully, humans seemed to be near the bottom of the list.

Considering that Mild didn't seem like the type to go about and mass murder the entire species populations on planets, and also the fact that he seemed clueless as to who he was or, indeed, what he was, it made sense to deduce that he was the carrier for this virus. Which would explain why Aurora was so frantic to get ahold of him; no antidote without the origin of the virus. It would also explain the pitstops that he and his companion had been making; they were all planets which Aurora kept her herds of ponies.

The scope broadened, though; seeing as how she was almost fanatical in her love of those animals, she'd stop at nothing to see after their well-being. So whomever planted this virus in Mild was either doing one of two things: either being a sadistic sonofa*****...

Or furthering a plot that was much bigger and much more sinister.

I won't rule out that the person may have been both, of course.

After logging my findings for future reference, I decided that I wouldn't be able to tackle this alone. Ensuring that Mild didn't spread the virus any further was only one small step; and considering that he was obviously under the control of someone else, it made sense to believe that the "someone else" had the ability to kick some serious ass.

Now having a plan in mind, I continued following Manouevres' ship, and put in two calls. One to Aurora, to inform her of my current situation and my intention to help.

The other one I was much more careful about.

Bringing up another hypercomm link, I looked for signals in Honshu, Kusari. After searching a bit, I quickly found the frequency I was searching for and opened up a channel.

"This is Bravo Point Lead to Valhalla Tower. Code designation A-2-3-B-7-7-4. Please respond." Any hail other than this would simply be met with dead silence. However, this code told them I was friendly, and who I was.

"Them" being the band of Zoners that I had taken the lead of a while back.

"Copy you loud and clear, Stone." A gruff voice answered on the other side. "Been a while since we've heard from you. Colony was beginning to wonder what happened to you. What's going on?"

"Quite a bit at the moment. Listen, I'm going to need your help for something..."

______________________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 13:54 / from Glock36

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A viewscreen announced itself and automatically rotated Glock36's chair toward it, waking him.

Glock36 opened one eye halfway.

The viewscreen showed Stone following Manouevres' ship.

Hmmmm.......

__________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 14:32 / from Manouevres

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The signal from the tracker was relatively easy to block, which surprised me. I’d sat in front of my comms system expecting to spend the next few hours trying to crack it and there it was on an open frequency. I don’t know if this annoyed me more because I hadn’t seen it earlier or because I’d been caught by such a cheap piece of technology.

Mild had gone off to hide in the hold, probably worried I’d relieve my anger on him, and wouldn’t re-appear till I told him to belt in for take off. I’m surprised he took to the ponies so well, he even seemed to enjoy their company. At one point I thought he might even ask if we could take one with us, now that would have been funny. What would I have said, “sure Mild, just find one that you haven’t gone near yet, put it in a glass cabinet and never touch it or it’ll die and you’ll have to get a new one.”

Now that the signal for the tracker was blocked I knew I’d have to tell the Baron. He’d want to know that Milds location was compromised and I knew he’d also want to be the first to know that his favourite mercenary had made a mistake, I could almost hear him laughing already.

Almost as soon as the message was sent I picked up an incoming communication on my secure comms unit, the unit was a custom job sitting in the back of my cockpit and the amount of encryption on the channel was something the Baron took pride in. Maybe he only wanted to pass on a mission update.

I accept the communication, “How can I help you Baron?”

“I just read your transmission, could you clarify a piece of it for me” came the reply in a voice with obviously restrained laughter.

I sighed, “yes, I was tracked.”

I waited for him to stop laughing.

I waited longer.

When he stopped enough to talk he managed to say, “you, the great hunter, are being hunted and didn’t even know about it?”

If I’d had a face capable of showing it I’m sure I would have been red with shame. This is what I get from getting complacent, no-one has ever tracked me successfully before and no one has tried in such a long time I’d forgotten to keep checking behind me.

“Maybe you could get Mild to fly your ship for you,” he continued, “he’s managed to avoid everyone so far while you can’t escape one freelancer.”

I felt that silence was probably my best reply.

“But, lucky for you, I think I see a way we can turn this all around, if you think you can manage to takeoff without crashing into the docking ring.”

He was never going to let me live this down, for now I’d have to grin and bare it. “What do you have in mind?”

“We’re going to use the freelancer Stone as bait.”

I watched Mild as we entered the jumphole, for someone so scared of space he was fascinated by jumpholes, probably all the light and colours. For such an inferior species he does have his moments, maybe that’s why humans keep pets in the first place.

Once we were past the event horizon I got to work. Modifying the IFF signal on my ship wasn’t hard but I wanted to make sure it was all set before we reached the next system. After my last mistake I didn’t want to get this wrong, the Baron might be laughing now but I knew he could just as happily sign an order for my death if I messed up again.

I check and double checked my work and then we were emerging into real space again.

Perfect, just a few corsairs in the area patrolling the jumphole for Xenos. With my new IFF signal they’d just assume I was another corsair pilot sent to help them patrol. I sent them some borrowed authorisation codes and joined the nearest flight group’s formation.

As I was aligning myself with the Corsairs I’d chosen to fly with the secure comms unit beeped to tell me it had received another message from the Baron. Not bothering to turn round and get it I ask Mild to read it and tell me what it said.

“Something about some junkers, apparently they’ve been delayed and wont be able to help out for a few days.” That didn’t make any sense but Mild was probably reading it wrong anyway, I’d read it myself in a minute.

I hadn’t told Mild yet what was going to happen but by the way his eyes were wide and looking in every direction I think he knew something was up. On the flight from the planet I’d told him that the Baron had cancelled Milds mission, I didn’t tell him why. I don’t think Mild could have grasped the idea that the 2 pilots he was looking for were now looking for him along with the entire UFO and anyone else Aurora had called.

And he had just shrugged and said “ok”. I knew from previous experience that only 3 things would stop Mild from doing what the Baron had told him to do: completion of the job, death or an order from the Baron. This was the first time I’d ever known the Baron to cancel a job and Mild had taken it like I’d told him the time.

I reached for the pad that Mild had surrendered to me now he no longer had a use for it and started to erase the data. And as I waited I wondered if the Baron would erase Mild just as completely once he no longer had a use for him.

*****************************

That’s a serious case of paranoia, anyone would think he’s the one being hunted. A quick active scan as he came through the jump hole showed him that my previous IFF wasn’t near the jump hole exit and out he pops. The jump hole opening would hide him scanning if I wasn’t looking for it and would allow give him enough information about me if I was in the area.

And then he makes his second mistake, rather than risk someone picking up his signal he’s not going to ask the corsairs about the last ship to come through the jump hole. His first mistake was trying to track me.

I know that as soon as he can’t find what he’s looking for he’ll ask the Corsairs but I don’t plan on giving him the time. As the patrol group I’m part of gets to it’s closest point to him I break off. He hasn’t got a direction to head in yet so he’s almost a stationary target as I setup my approach run.

At 1k I open fire. The maglev makes short work of his shields as my PPX9s make neat holes in his engine intake, seems Glock has a sense of irony. My first run done and Stone hanging dead in space I swing back round and take a few pot shots at his expensive looking sensor arrays before returning to the Corsair patrols.

I’m still showing as friendly when I approach so the first few kills are almost too easy to be fun. But they perk up after that and I get to spend some quality time doing what I do best.

After dispatching the last one I return to the pesky freelancer. I feel the need to vent some of my annoyance at him and I can see that I have his full attention.

I start by targeting and removing his PPXs, I find being weaponless and adrift in space tends to focus the mind somewhat. I then finish off his sensor array, his Stiletto will look much better without it. I also take the time to scan his ship and remove any other scanners or forms of weapons it picks up, even suspected ones.

Now for the fun, I switch a system wide channel and say, “Calling all Xenos, I hear you’ve been having some problems with Stone. If you’ll check the data I’m sending out you’ll see he's stranded and defenceless. When you’re ready I’m sure he’ll appreciate you visiting him.” The airwaves instantly hot up.

That done I jettison a transmitter to repeat the message every 5 minutes along with the co-ordinates.

There isn’t a corsair base in this system, so Stone will have to call on the UFO for help and the only incentive he can offer them to come rescue him before the Xenos show up is a cut of the $500mil for finding Mild. If that doesn’t bring tripleHex and Spartankonin I’m not sure what would.

The Baron will see to getting the Kadaks into the system at about the same time and then things will really get intresting.

But for now I start my patrol around Stone, just outside his visual range. I wanted him to keep transmitting to the UFO and he couldn’t do that if the Xenos did actually show up.

__________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 15:25 / from Stone

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I was NOT a happy camper.

Being weaponless was bad enough. But dead in space, I hated that more than anything. I prided myself on being able to dodge my way out of almost any situation, but an ambush like that left me no chance whatsoever.

One thing was for sure, though- Manoeuvres was obviously enjoying herself immensely. Even though my scanners were fried except for my built-in backups, I could catch a glimpse of her every now and then, undoubtedly making sure no one came to the rescue. And judging from what my local comm was picking up, Xenos would be arriving at any moment.

Fortunately for me, I had taken into account that something like this might happen- I'd been leaving this for a last resort, but now was obviously the time for me to play my trump card. I was sincerely glad now that I'd called for support from not just Aurora.

Fine tuning my hypercomm again, which thankfully was embedded within the nondamaged critical systems of my ship, I sent out a signal into a system that bordered this one.

"Code Deep **** Alert." Not very professional, but who else would think of using that as a code? "Hate to say it, but apparently she *did* know I was on to her. Should have anticipated it better."

"No worries," the calm voice of Captain Rickson replied. "We're on our way. ETA, 4 minutes."

"Roger, thanks for the ass haulage." I signed off and began waiting for what was to be the longest four minutes of my life. My standard, toned-down scanners occasionally picked up Manoeuvres in the cloud. I only hoped my gamble would pay off.

As it turned out, it did. It was obvious that she was expecting me to send out a call to the UFO for assistance, seeing as how they're all anyone thought I had ties to, but what she definately did not expect was a commandeered and semi-stripped down, but still lethal, Liberty Battleship, fresh from Norfolk Shipyards, and bought with new ship technology made at our new base in Honshu, Planet Equinox. The base there was still under construction, but the designs that we had worked on while staying at numerous Freeports when I wasn't in the House Systems had proved to fetch a very good price, especially designs for a Liberty Gunboat. Since then, we had been hard at work setting up our own shipyards on Equinox, which I had found accidentally while exploring an anomaly in a gas cloud.

Coming in at cruise speed, Rickson cut the Donnerschlag's engines and drifted the remaining 7k to the target. Manoeuvres started to turn to engage this new threat, but it was too late. Her ship is pretty advanced, no doubt, but not much can take a full salvo of battleship turrets. The first half of the shots wiped out the shields and sent the ship spinning. Before she could recover, another burst from two of the turrets wrecked her engines while she was inverted. She was still dangerous should someone face her directly, though, which is why the Donner sat on her 6, weapons trained.

"Manoeuvres, this is Captain Rickson of the Donnerschlag, Novastar Protectorate Naval Forces." We would go by Novastar Industries when the shipyards were finished and the company launched, but the armed forces division was already active, something I was very glad of. "You are to stand down and power off your weapons. You have some volatile cargo on board, and have been determined to be acting to destablize the colonies, which we find to be very... distasteful." Rickson seemed to search for a word that didn't involve any taboo body parts or byproducts.

"Cooperate, and we'll be sure to let you off easy in your interrogation. Jack us around and you'll be treated to something we like to call 'nerve stapeling'. Our test subjects would testify to its effectiveness if they could, but permanant pain-induced paralysis tends to prevent that."

I might not agree with his methods sometimes, but having an ex-Corsair on your side does have its uses.

While he was giving his speech, the docking bay opened and a stock Defender made its way to me, latched on to me with its tractor beam, and hauled me to the docking bay.

Despite her antics, I really didn't like pulling this on Manouevres. But then, she chose the dishonorable way out and ambushed me. I'd gladly have given her an honorable fight, but that's the way the sun goes nova, I guess.

I began my trek to the bridge, listening to the radio chatter for her reply, and thought through the situation.

If anything was certain, though, my Stiletto had literally outlived its usefulness.

______________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 15:53 / from Glock36

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The chair began to rotate again. Glock36 was awakened again.

He looked at the screen when his chair stopped.

"Oh Me." he sighed.

"How am I supposed to find time to create The New if these fools keep destroying my old creations so rapidly?"

"The Baron and this pony situation are becoming a nuisance. I created ponies for a reason. MeDamn Demimes!"

"I hope I don't have to get involved here."

__________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 17:26 / from Manouevres

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'Back off Captin – This isn’t you fight and you don’t want to see what happens if you keep pushing it. This isn’t even Stones fight but he insisted on getting himself involved, by all rights his carcass is mine. I beat him one-on-one and I didn’t shamefully call in reinforcements.’

‘I hold the cure to the pony virus, something that Aurora wants very badly, if you don’t back off right now I will leave it you to explain to her why she must watch all her ponies die.’ If the Baron forgives me for stealing weapons from his arsenal I hope he brings me back should this goes wrong...

‘I want you to put as much distance between me and you as possible or me, you and Auroras ponies will die. Ever see a nuke explode from this close before?'

__________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 17:36 / from Aurora

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I arrived on scene just in time to watch Manoeuvres' ship being targeted by the battleship. Something fishy was going on. I knew she would never allow a mission to end in total failure, and I was betting on a self-destruct sequence. I simply couldn't allow that to happen. I pulled down my console link and put the whole messy situation into cryo. The void is terribly difficult to escape, even with deity's help. As I move them, I disable all ship functions beyond life-support and the chess games. Then a text window pops up. Uh-oh. Looks like Glock was actually watching the show.

"Greetings, my child. How are things?" Crafy ol' bastard knew exactly how "things" were. He likes to play a bumbling, forgetful old man, but he's still very much in his prime. I tap my keyboard.

"All is well, old man. Did we wake you from your nap?"

"I am indeed concerned by this situation. It would seem that your reccomendations for promotion were flawed." Damn. He tends to fly off the handle occasionally. "Now, instead of coding, I have a situation on my hands. I'll have to wade in and sort things out." My, my. He was in a tear this time. "You know I don't want to have to involve myself! That's why I created all of you! You're supposed to run things so I can go on creating!" He takes a rare pause.

"No! No, there's no need for you to get involved!" I manage to wedge the sentence in before he continues.

"I can't have whole species being destroyed! And I've watched these humans stumbling about. I think they were a mistake."

"A mistake? Oh no! Give them time! We'll get them trained ok. And remember, you put the free will in just for the comic relief. It's really working well. The new guys just like pulling my pig-tails a little, so to speak. We're bonding. There's no need for you to take any action. I've got the solution right there in the void. It may take some time, but you need not worry about these little details." There was a long pause. I wondered what he was seeing. I made a note to be sure to visit him in person, soon. He needed to get out of his cave more often. See some sunlight.

"Carry on then. I'm having some trouble with a new system."

Back on the console I order the battleship to disengage with Manoeuvres. I watch as they drop the tractor beam and back away from her ship. As I kick them back out into reality, I take a moment to replace Stone's ship and credit him with the promised reward. I'll have to keep an eye on that one. He's resourceful.

"Now then, Manoeuvres, if you surrender MildDiscomfort, your punishment will be swift. If you try to keep him, I will make your "life" a living nightmare. . . "

__________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 17:41 / from Manouevres

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'Damn Im not paid enough for this'

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Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 18:03 / from Stone

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"Keep the reward, Aurora. I don't want to go attracting undue attention to myself, and the UFO is going to be wondering who the hell did this anyhow. Having those credits transferred to my account will only heat up things."

I winced. With Aurora on the scene as well now, Manouevres truely was in a pickle. I decided that a withdraw, volentary or otherwise, to let those two sort things out for themselves was certainly in my best intrest; I was no longer needed here, my job was done, my fun over. Time to make myself scarce before some plucky UFO stumbled across the scene and saw what resources I had at my disposal.

The Donnerschlag quietly drifted backwards until it was hidden from view, and then changed course and started heading back home. New developments had come up, and I needed to tend to them.

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Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 18:53 / from MildDiscomfort

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I think I may have missed something and the more I think about it the more I’m sure I missed, it was all getting very confusing. I keep thinking of the big dogs we’d seen at our last couple of stops and just wanted Manouevres to take me back. I had hoped that with my misson now being cancelled I’d be able to have a day off and maybe spend some time playing with them.

But now Manouevres face looked like thunder, the lady outside had said something I was trying to understand. At first Manouevres had look defeated but now she looked pissed. From what I had figured out so far she’d been asked to backdown and was having problems, I doubt she’d ever back down from a fight and I guess some part of her was still trying to figure away out of this one.

Trying to figure out what was going on I ask, “Who’s that outside”

“Aurora.”

“Aurora?”

“Yes,” she growls.

“The Aurora?”

“Yes, ” a deeper growl

“The leader of the ponies Aurora?”

Pause

“Yes,” through gritted teeth.

“Is she her with her pony army to kill us?”

“No… yes… maybe… I don’t know, I’ll ask her!” and then she starts laughing.

Maybe I should go back to the hold, it feels safer back there.

As I wonder back to the hold I try to make sense of what is happening. Why would Aurora be here and why would she be asking Manouevres to surrender… me?

I stopped mid stride. Aurora was after me!

Aurora was after me and … and Manouevres wasn’t turning me over despite… Aurora had threaten Manouevers and Manouevres didn’t look like she was turning me over.

Now I was really confused.

Aurora had said she’d hurt Manouevres whatever happened and I couldn’t see how I could not end up in Auroras grasp, so I made my decision, if it was mine to make.

I walked back into the cockpit, and asked “Can I talk to Aurora?”

“I can hear you” says Auroras voice from everywhere.

“If I choose to come will you let Manouevers go without hurting her?”

__________________

Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 21:31 / from MaD_BaRoN_HahA

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I’d lost track of Manouevres and decided to take this as a sign for the worst, I’d have to move my time scale up a little bit.

I knew that Mild had infected 4 planets directly and there was a rumour circulating that Aurora had quarantined another of her planets. Even if against all odds the infection hadn’t left these 5 planets and Aurora had Mild in her grasp this very minute it’d still take her time to find the cure and get it to all the sick ponies, but not a lot of time.

My previous plan to bring the Kadaks and the 2 pilots together, using Stone as bait, looks to have failed. I didn’t need the Kadaks to actually capture tripleHex or Spartakonin, just to get the idea that I was trying to help them capture them, but it looked like something had gone seriously wrong, costing me a good merc in the process.

I reach for my comm. unit, time for plan… which plan am I onto now, have I really gone through so many I can’t remember. Oh well.

“Blumybah, I don’t know if you’ve heard from this from Aurora already but I’ve just learnt of an incoming Nomad scouting force. I need as many pilots as you can spare to try and stop them.”

“The last I spoke to Aurora she had me searching for some furry little creature, put a very high price on his head if he was brought back alive. Nothing about nomads.”

“She didn’t mention it to you? It must have slipped her mind, though I heard she’s already captured her runaway.” I didn’t know if she had or not but it couldn’t hurt to have the UFO stop searching. And might as well claim that Mild was one of Auroras toys, the UFO would love the idea of spending their time and fuel looking for a lost pet. “But you can see how important it is that I have as many pilots as possible ready to meet the nomads before they get too close.”

“Certainly, I’ll start broadcasting the message as soon as I can.”

“Very good,” I say and close the line.

I’ll have to send a message to the Dom’Kavash shortly to see if the can spare some nomad scouts. But first I’ll put in a call to the Kadak high council, they love a bit of gossip and I imagine they’ll love the rumour of a Nomad scouting party.

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Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 21:56 / from Spartankonin

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Well... it's dark and it's getting cold. Most basic control systems have crashed. All major flight controls including landing jets are very close to scrap metal. I can hear the angry scream of a hull compromise somewhere on the lower decks. I truly believe my arm was fractured halfway through the battle.... I can't feel it anymore and it has a blueish hue to it. My hands are frozen to the throttle controls and they refuse to let go. Coms are down. I can't even move much less get to the escape pod. The hull groans and pops as the impending vacuum of space tries to reach inside the ship and get a foothold to tear her apart.

She was a good ship . Great really. I only knew her a short while but it was definately quality time. She banked hard. Her targeting systems were state of the art. Her amazing ability to veer directly into a ppa stream and come out the otherside untouched was a testament to her native speed and agility . I added a nomad thruster and that made her squeal through open vacuum like I was riding Glock's own chariot. Damn shame she had to go out so soon but even if this was the only battle she ever saw...She was honored to be apart of it. She was a good ship. If I live I will definately remove her tag and mount it on a wall somewhere. If I live...Faced with one's impending mortality one would think it would be a tense situation. I don't feel tense at all. I feel a sense of calm. A lethargic sense of disjointed reality. Maybe the airs goin bad sooner than I had first estimated. Who knows. Who cares?

My next thought was to just go to sleep and wake up dead but I have never been good at quittin. Stubborn bastard. Nope, not me. I would rather follow a Xeno, who took a pot-shot at me, through 16 systems before I decide he or she or it was lucky bastard and let them go. By the way, NO one who has ever shot at me has ever made it through 16 systems and got away.

Yeah, I can be pretty cocky sometimes. In fact, I probably wouldn't be in this position if I were capable of taking little **** and not gettin pissed. But I am not. Hence, my current situation.

My only real regret at this point is that Admiral Conner of the Corsair 7th battalion fleet didn't get to see the battle. He would have had the entire battle recorded, logged and placed in an honored spot on the " wall of legends " on Crete. Admiral Conner has been like a father to me and Hex...albeit and angry , loud , bossy father but then again... who's isn't ?

Admiral Conner was the guy that took us in and taught us how to fly. And I don't mean " Here's the throttle and here is the pitch and yaw". No, I mean after our 7th or 8th time of goin to a cretian brig or penitenitiary for various offenses, he decided to take it upon himself to train us and try to give us a sense of direction. After all... When two fifteen year olds in a couple of worn down falcons take on his capship and 15 of his best fighters for 4 days in a hit and run guerilla offensive while drunk......you tend to see the possible potentials of training such talented individuals. Admiral Conner didn't make it easy though. He was pretty ruthless on the two of us but the end result sort of spoke for itself....

After 3 years extreme extensive training and reconditioning and 4 years of unparalleled service to the Corsairs as front gunners and assassins as well as lead point on massive confrontation efforts against Bretonian space we were given the highest honours bestowed upon Corsair pilots......Then Hex slept with the daughter of a councilman for the ministry of war....Brigadier General Aaron Keplick.

Thats when things went terribly, terribly wrong.....

Suffice to say we left Crete in a hurry. We laughed about the newly placed bounty on our heads....

After that we spent the better part of a decade regaining our place within the world..whatever that was. Its been so long I don't know if I even remember why people looked up to us....

When we left Crete we were in a couple of good fighters but I had a little surprise for my wingman tripleHex...

There...sitting in a wide orbit was the Corsair's second flagship and a massive peice a machinery...The Corsaris Edicta(The Corsair's Law).

"Holy **** Spart!! They found us!!!! Bank on three and take lead! I'll draw fire on four!" Hex was vexed.

"Whoa whoa lil bro! Thats my surprise....Waddya think?" I asked in a non-chalant tone.

He pops on the comm calmly as he knows how to do in a tight situation. " What did you do?"

I said, "I thought we might need a little assistance since this Kadak has no intention of living any longer."

He said, "What did you do?"

I said, " I called in a favor. I sent a coded message on the red-line."

He said, " The red-line! What did you do!?"

I screamed back into the comm, "I'm gettin the job done!! The Kadak is a hostile! I'm gonna take care of it!"

He said, "How? We gonna chase him in a gunboat?! Is he in that thing or did he just send it?!"

I said, " Its not a gunboat..."

He said, "What?!"

I said, "Its a battleship. Y'know a cruiser."

The comm was strangely silent.

After a second or two he said, "Why do you gotta make me shoot you in front of people!"

He then opened up full bore with all his guns and began swiftly reducing my sheilds to nothing. I kicked my thrusters full throttle and kicked back in my seat as the inertial dampers started and took control of the cockpit. We veered left then right as we, almost automatically, jumped into a swan-like ballet of dog-fighting that very few people have ever claimed to see...fer most it was the last time the saw anything.

This went on for about 5 minutes in a full toe-to-toe pitched battle as mines exploded and missles missed their mark and energy tracers took the shape of a swirling kaleidascope of color and light.

We came to frame bending stop.....The comms lit up.."Thats enough!" Came a voice so commanding that I immediately cringed in my seat. I instinctively went into a military piloting posture and I knew that Hex did too.

"Come aboard boys...We have alot to talk about and very little time with which to do it."

Embarassingly we both replied at the same time.." Yes, sir."

On the way up the turbo lifts to the main ready room for the admiral we gazed about our surroundings...Hex punched me in the ribs and said, "Look yer name is still carved in the ceiling tile."

I whipped myhead up and there it was...I had carved that on my 16th birthday as the admiral gave me leave from my duties to have a party on the promenade. That didn't go so well...thats another story.

I said, "You think hes mad at us still?"

tripleHex replied, "Well we did kinda let him down and we left over a decade ago and haven't spoke to him since....what do you think?"

I said, "Me? I think he is always mad."

We both chuckle our last for the next few hours as the doors hissed open and there he stood.

He just looked at us and smiled a warm smile..."So your having Kadak problems eh?" Come with me boys and I'll show you what I have in the hanger bay."

He then took us to the massive launch bay and walked us through the ships..Me and tripleHex immediately singled out 2 ships we thought would do the job nicely. I had never piloted a ship like the Cobra before and this was definately a work of art. Fluid lines and no visible seams...Highly polished finish. Beautiful ladies. We unloaded our gear and began loading and stocking the Cobras and checking systems and sheild grids...These things had 2 of them! And they were top-o-the-line.

All the while it seemed as if we must have gained a level in the good admiral's eyes because we were talkin about the good ol' days and drinking honeyberry drought from the honeysacs that cling to certain asteroids in the omega-41 belt. We have never enjoyed this part of this man's life because it was never prudent. Now, apparently prudence...is negotiable.

I gave my last farewells and entered the cobra and started pre-launch checks...

tripleHex came up over the com.." That was really cool man. I have a completely different outlook on that man."

I said, "yeah, I know....we're gonna have to drop in on him sometime. I love the fact he knows how to play quarters!"

The next step in my plan was a simple one... engage and destroy. I saddled up and checked positions on all charged weps. I took a deep breath through my nose and exhaled through my mouth....It was time.

As per the plan I supplied to the admiral before we even got on his ship he had plotted a course nice and far away from any known jumpholes or gates of anykind. No where to run...None of this apparently moved the Kadak to terribly much as he was still playing within scanner range and even a little closer as he must have known the sensors and scanners on this battlecruiser can damn near reach the next system.

We said our goodbyes to Admiral Conners and depressurized the launch bay...

<Captain Spartankonin, you are cleared for launch on pad 2>

I said, "Ok tripleHex..look sharp don't get cocky keep moving and don't take yer eyes off of him for even a second!"

He said, "Roger that. Good guy, bad guy?"

I stopped and looked out the open bay doors...That Kadak is piloting his nations best weaponry and even with these Cobras we will need a bit-o-luck to guide this battle. He doesn't even need to be a good pilot in a ship like that.

I replied, "No go...Bad guys...no good guy...Hit him fast. Hit him hard....and don't stop till either your pulse does or there is no more Kadak..Understand me Hex? NO ****in around!"

<Launching in 3....2....1....Launch>

The world seemed to accelerate rapidly for a second then all was still...The wake from the battleship going into cruise still floated through the space around our Cobras. We were in a hold pattern and the vaccuum seemed thick with tension.

The Kadaks ship stopped for an instant at the appropriate scanner range for a little electronic handshake just to let us know he was almost ready for us then his ship spiked the scanners as it thrusted at amazing speed directly toward our six.

I screamed in the com, " Bank left and use flank-alpha-5 tactics and don't show em yer ass!!!Ever!! ARGHH!!!!"

The skies lit up as two very powerful warheads missed us both but when it detonated close by it still shredded most of the dual sheilds both of us were sportin. I recovered from the explosion just in time to catch a full broadside barrage from the Kadaks guns. Apparently tripleHex was a little more on his game than I was as the Kadak had to frantically pull up to avoid the sunslayer torpedo that was 5k from his hull. After that there were no more surprises. We all fell into a bright synchronized fireworks display of deadly fire and ice. Nothing could prepare us for a nueral interface...He was pre-guessing all our tactics but wasn't good enough to counter an offensive often enough through the first 5 or 10 minutes of the battle. A couple of lucky hits and a full head on collision between the Kadak and tripleHex gave us a slight hint of an advantage...But we were definately hurt..I had no second sheild batteries and my actual sheild reserve batteries were down to 10 or so..From what I can tell this Kadak hasn't yet used more than 10 bats himself and I wasn't sure how tripleHex was doing.

I hit the com on an off chance he was doing better than I was and received a choking static filled reply of, " I'm gonna rip his glockdamned throat out!!" I could hear fire warnings going off in the background.

I decided to step it up a bit. I said, "Thats it buddy get pissed!! He is using a -Expletive Deleted-nueral net control interface and if ya just get mad enough we can take this fight back to him!!! Now lets probe this mutha -****a!!!"

It is common knowledge that emotions tend to throw off the ability of any nueral interface to reliably judge the thoughts or predisposition of those it is intended to read. Anger, as taught by our instructors, is one of the most chaotic and unpredictable emotions that can still focus actions. Getting mind-numbing pissed is really the only reliable way to beat an opponent utilizing one of these interfaces..Irony is is that anger can focus talent and raise it to a different level of perception and reasoning. A complete instant awareness of one's surroundings and evironment where mind is body and body is mind.

The tides began to turn in our favor as the Kadak's guesses begin to fail. Choice after choice was the wrong one until after a series of devastating strafes from me and hex....the Kadak abandoned the nueral interface and relied on his own training. This was abit of a surprise to me...It had been 20 minutes and we pretty much beat ourselves for most of that and we are barely gaining ground..Now that the nueral interface was deactivated I was expecting a quick kill, but it seems this Kadak was worthy to fly such a fine chariot. We knew better though..guessing our thoughts is one thing..you still have to make choices based on two maniacal individuals but as a single sentient mind....The odds, though his skills were above any Kadak I had personally seen, were very much against his survival. He does his race proud....I line up the final shot as Hex comes in from behind.

I nod his general direction then hit my thrusters and weps simultaneously and jet toward him....

There was a bright light and a slight burning sensation....

I heard something on the com I couldn't really understand at first but now sitting in this ship about to die....I realize Hex was trying to tell me a nuke had been dropped....I am tired now...Can't believe the Kadak blew himself to smithereens...Well...What would hex call this...A peeric victory....(choke) "WhooHaa!" The echo in the ship seems to warp as the hull twists and undulates as the last bit of integrity leaves it...

So tired......

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Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 22:42 / from Manouevres

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I sigh

'Mild, you are braver than i gave you credit for, there's a chance you might survive if you leave, i hope you get to go home eventually.'

I flick switches, powering down my PPAX 9's one by one and my maglevs, hand shaking i hit the hidden little red button - the one that says DO NOT PRESS - and power down my shields, little lights and alarm bells start going off, alerting me to the danger of being this vulnerable to the debris and vacuum of space.

I walk towards the hold, and find why Mild likes it in there so much, a crate of my cargo lying glittering on the floor, pretty lights in the gloom, I suppose the crate is sufficiently vacuum proof.

'Are you sure?'

He nods, Sighing I bundle him into the crate, crack a glowstick for him and throw in a protein bar and some diamonds for him to play with while he is in there, 'see you round furball'. I seal the lid.

I walk back to my cockpit, seal the cargo bay off and open the main door, jettisoning Mild in a pretty cloud of diamonds - they wont be much use now to me, I curl up, put my knees under my chin, and await whatever fate the gods decide...

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Transmission intercepted 03 March 2005 at 23:34 / from Aurora

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"If I choose to come will you let Manoeuvres go without hurting her?" his voice trembles only a little. I'm touched by his loyalty to his friend and his bravery.

"MildDiscomfort," I say very gently, "Do you understand why I want to hurt Manoeuvres?" There's a long pause.

"no."

"She's been taking you to lots of planets and introducing you to some special friends of mine. Friends just as sweet and innocent as you. The problem is that you have something on you that makes my friends very, very sick."

"You mean. . ."

"Yes, Mild, you have single handedly killed five thousand ponies and more are still sick. Manoeuvres knew that you were making them sick and brought you to them on the Baron's orders. She knows, too, that the only way to heal my friends is to take you to a doctor, who will take the infection from you harmlessly, yet she obviously doesn't want to do it." There is no reply. "So you see, Mild, this is a huge thing you ask of me. If you truly want me to let her go unharmed, you must not only come with me but also renounce the Baron and give me your loyalty."

A minute passes while Mild contemplates what must have been his only friend. I half hope that he doesn't come to me; I really want to make Manoeuvres hurt.

"And you won't hurt me?"

"No, Mild. You'll stay dry and comfortable and warm." Another significantly long pause.

"ok"

*****************************

On the way back to Crete and my star vet, I find the aftermath of a bloody battle. A couple of escape pods catch my eye, looking vaguely familiar. I tractor them on board and keep going. They'll keep. Then I notice one more. Are those Kadakian markings? What the hell. I'll sort it all out later. I take a look at the creature now sharing my ship. He's curled up in a warm spot in the standard meadow-hold, napping after having eaten more fish than I've ever seen one creature eat at one sitting.

Back at the planet I have to do a bit of fancy maneuvering to dock without a ring. Manoeuvres. . . well, I hope she is happy to be back in civilization. I kept my promise to Mild, but I'm certainly keeping my eye on her.

*****************************

While the doc is working with Mild, I take a look at the escape pods. Then I start giggling. What luck. Perhaps we'll have a tea party while I explain a few things. I'm sure it will do Mild good to finally be in the same room with these two. And the Kadak is bound to find Mild's story intriguing. Things are certainly looking up.

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Transmission intercepted 06 March 2005 at 15:52 / from MildDiscomfort

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I sat at the table playing with the shiny things Manouevres had given me when I had last seen her. I had originally picked them up because of they way they sparkled and they had been for more interesting, and less scary, than watching all the ships and flashing lights outside. I kept them now because they reminded me of my friend.

Aurora has asked me repeatedly to throw them away, I don’t think she approves of my missing Manouevres, but she hasn’t taken them. I can’t believe that Manouevres did all the things I’ve been told, maybe I just don’t want to believe those things are true.

I’m waiting to meeting some more of Auroras friends today, 2 humans and a Kadak. My experience with Kadaks is very limited, mostly things I’ve over heard in bars or between the Baron and his other agents. I wonder if they really do probe first and ask questions later, if so I don’t want to be here for any Q&A.

The 2 humans arrive first, led by Aurora, and I instantly recognise them, even though they look more cohesive this time, these were the 2 pilots that the baron had asked me to find. I think that’s what Aurora wants me to tell them all about, but I don’t know anything. The Baron had told me to stop looking and I’d given the data pad to Manouevres.

They stop and stare at me as they walk in, like they’re trying to remember something they’ve forgotten, so, lacking anything else to do, I stare back

“Spartankonin, tripleHex, this is MildDiscomfort, another stray I’ve picked up on my travels, you probably don’t remember him but you’ve met before. Now wait here and play nicely while I fetch our last guest.”

At the mention of another guest the 2 humans give each other a curious look and seem to forget about me. Once Aurora has left the room they head straight for the bar, I watch them as the start looking for something alcoholic but only find tea and coffee.

I watch as they pour themselves drinks and sit backs to the wall facing the door. Then in a sudden furry of motion both pilots are standing again pointing guns across the room. I guess they’ve forgotten that Aurora wouldn’t have allowed them working weapons.

I turn to see what they are staring at now and see Aurora with the funniest looking creature I have ever seen, it has no hair, not even on it's face!! Aurora gives me a stern look as I start giggling but I can’t help myself.

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Wow. This is long.
Pretty good from what Ive read fo far.

I excel in competitive laziness...

it is intresting though

Steel_Fang
I challenge you to a lazy contest!

Edited by - Mrdeaths on 11/7/2005 6:19:36 PM