Discovery Gaming Community

The room was lighten suddenly again. Light prevailed over the darkness of the wall created by a weaved black hood that had been forcefully placed over Nolan's head. Nolan shut his eyes to try to keep the light from burning in another image of the light into his vision.

"So. How are we doing today, Mister Wolf?" a voice questioned him from behind the light.
"Just dandy. I'm guessing the other interrogator got pissed off and had you come in? Good cop - bad cop?" Nolan replied seeing through the interrogation technique.
"I thought you guys would be more original than that? I see things haven't changed much since I retired."
"Don't even go there, Wolf. From now on you went on LEAVE! Do you UNDERSTAND?!"

The sounds of a chair passing withing centimeters of his left ear and smashing into one of the room's walls behind him darkened the atmosphere. Nolan knew it was time to smarten up.

"Yes, sir!" Nolan shouted into the blinding light.
"You work for us now, Wolf. And before we get too well acquainted I think you might want to have a look at your first assignment..."

Nolan heard the the slap of papers hitting the titanium table that was most likely sitting in front of him followed by the interrogator walking off and out of the room. A automatic door screamed shut and caused the light that had been blinding him to go out.

Nolan looked down at the table and found not only a small pile of papers but his old LSF badge and sidearm. He picked up the badge and felt the deep scars that had been burned into the medal from previous missions. Nolan closed his eyes as he thought back to the fateful day he was shot down by the Phantoms. The sounds of the high pitched failing life support alerts echoed through his head. The shouts of his wingmates accompanied the warnings. Some of them were shouts of horror, others of bravery and courage as they gave their lives to hold the line. Nolan was back in his ship. Red lights flashed indicating critical hull integrity. The sounds of the alerts and warnings got louder and louder, blocking out his friends' cries for help. Incoming missiles shook the ship like a starflier being smacked by an asteroid. Blood dripped on his gloved hand as he pulled his survival mask over his head. One of the control panels to his left exploded sending shrapnel into his suit and left arm and shoulder, where he kept his badge. The alerts were so loud that he could not hear himself think about pulling the ej-

"Wolf! You going to sit there and day dream all day or are you going read the damned report?" a irritated voice sounded over a set of speakers directly above his head.

Nolan carefully put down the badge down on the table trying not to damage it further. Nolan left the LSF about a week after the initial incursion with a squadron of elite pilots know as the Phantom. Now the only reason he agreed to help the LSF was because they promised him the possibility of revenge against those bastards.

Nolan picked up the folder and starred at the cover of the folder reading the statement over and over and over.

"Top Secret. Now that's my kind of work!"

Nolan starred on at the Executioner in despair. A small one meter section of the starboard wing was missing everything down to the very frame of the ship while most of the paint of the fighter had been ripped off from miscellaneous encounters with weapons fire and space debris. The only significant part of the paint job that remained was part of the LSF logo which had a neatly placed black plasma burn in the middle of it.

"This... This is my ship?" Nolan muttered as he walked towards the ship to examine it more closely.
"You bet it is Agent Wolf. And you better get used to it." one of the interrogators from earlier followed behind Wolf closely, holding a folded black hood.

Nolan turned around to face his interrogator.

"Help me out here, sir. I can't figure out what is worse: the ship or you being my CO?"
"For a year."
"Wha-"
"Just kidding, Wolf! Don't you still have a sense of humor?" The interrogator threw the black hood at Nolan with little remembrance of they way he had been treating him earlier.
"You'll have to fly this thing for about a week before we can get you a replacement ship. Oh, I also have some good and bad news."
"Ok, hit me."
"Well the good news is that you this thing has a quasi-stealth system built into it that will let you get close to other ships without showing up on their sensors. Oh, it's not a cloak either so you better find some rocks to hide behind while pursuing your target."
"And the bad news?" Nolan said as he looked up into the hanger's ceiling.
"Well, your replacement ship isn't the best fighter we have out there. And we still have to get you into the new ship afterward."
"Alright. I can live with waiting."
"Good. Cause, if you couldn't you wouldn't be an LSF agent, now would you?"

Nolan walked closer to the Lieutenant Colonel. LTC Christopher Adams measured about the same height as Nolan, 1.8 meters, and had a strong physical build akin to Nolan. The only big difference between the men was age as Nolan was twenty-five and the Chris was thirty-nine. Despite the age difference the men shared the equal experience in the field, about six years each, with the exception of Adams having worked with Liberty Navy as a marine for about seven years.

"Indeed, I wouldn't be."
"So, you ready to get out there, Agent Wolf?"
"I sure as hell am ready." Nolan said as he walked off towards the Executioner reviewing the intelligence mission against the Phantoms in his head.
"Oh, one more thing before you go, Wolf."
"What?"
"Don't scratch my ship."

"Damnit, where did that documentation go..." Nolan thought as he struggled to find the Executioner's stealth system documentation.

Small pieces of space debris bounced off the ship every few seconds causing the war torn Executioner to shake like a nervous child. The auto pilot thrusters were not helping either, as they fired periodically to put the ship back into position. Nolan finally found the small book under the pilot's seat. Using the light given off from his personal computer, he began to reread it, just to make sure he knew the controls by heart.

"You know what? The hell am I doing out here anyways? I mean I'm all for getting back at the Phantoms but what the heck does the LSF have me doing out in the middle of no where?" The seven hours of being stuck in an Executioner by himself were starting to catch up to him. The ship made a long creaking noise as it bumped into the asteroid it was hiding behind, causing another alert to go off on the ship's control board. Nolan looked over the board to make sure the ship had not taken any physical damage. Suddenly, another alert went off. This time it was the proximity sensor Nolan had dropped off about ten kilometers away from his position, the LSF was right about visitors. The alert was then followed by another alert, and then another.

"Huh... Fighters this far out... Can't be Xenos..." Nolan called up his NAV map of the Colorado system and checked to make sure no Xeno or pirate activity had been reported near Pueblo Station.

"Definitely not one of ours either. But what the hell could the Phantoms want out here?" Nolan grabbed his personal computer and brought up a digital copy of the assignment he had been given. He began to read it over just to make sure he was in the right position:

"Summary:

Intelligence aggregated from several LPI and Navy reports suggest unusual vessel contact in the areas of-

Sector: C - 8 thru 5
and
Sector: D - 8 thru 4

-over the past year. We believe this could mean a new pirate base has been constructed somewhere in the region, or a base has been increased in size for whatever reason. Although previous scouting and reconnaissance missions have not turned up any more evidence of a base there have been a series of unusual contacts with vessels broadcasting on a high frequency range seen before only in a few select incidents with the terrorist faction known as the Phantoms.

Validity of Evidence:

All of the reports summited were made by competent officers in the LPI and Navy.

Other Information:

Caution advised: Phantoms are armed and dangerous.
Locations noted: C-8t5, D-8t5"

The ships were coming in from the north on a course headed slightly to the east of the the New York gate. Nolan was not unfamiliar with uneven odds, but this was ridiculous. The only thing he could do was shadow the Phantoms.

"Hahaha! Shadow the Phantoms! I make myself laugh..."

The Executioner shook violently as another starflier sized asteroid pinged off the ship's hull. Nolan looked down at the ship's console and noticed the shields were at nine percent. Nolan instinctively cut the ship's engines and reversed the ship's thrusters to stop it quickly. While he waited for the shields to regenerate, Nolan took some time to look over his sensor readouts. He was only seven kilometers into the asteroid field, the Executioner wasn't made to take this kind of damage. With no contacts on his radar and his shields back at full power, Nolan restarted the engines and headed towards the middle of the field at impulse speeds.

Without warning, a hostile radar contact appeared at eleven kilometers. Nolan immediately activated his ship's stealth systems and moved the Executioner behind one of the many of asteroids. The contact stopped at about ten kilometers.

Nolan cursed under his breath and began to power off all nonessential systems to minimize the risk of being picked up on sensors. Before he could shut off the communications systems, a hail alert stopped him in the middle of his task.

Nolan at first ignored it. The hail was most likely a way to confirm his presence in the area and Nolan had no plans on doing something as careless as that. Nolan waited for the hail to go away, but it persisted. That could mean only one thing.

I know you are out there. Whispered a woman's voice the universal comm channel. Well, actually, we know you are out there! As Nolan looked at the information he had on the contact, he saw two additional contacts appear on his radar. The ships' call signs were not broadcasting, but their IFF said it all.

Y'all can't hide from the Xeno Alliance! - The woman's accent leaked into her voice as she became more angry - I suggest you run while you have the chance. Nolan wasn't very keen on taking advice from his enemies, but the Xeno was right; if he stuck around for much longer he may as well be a POW.

Nolan powered the ship's engines back up and put them into cruise mode. It was time to attack this from another angle.