The Retribution Chronicles
Part Two of Three
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Episode One: Revolution
A small ship came into land on the planet of Houston. A man with dark, messy, hair stepped out and made his way for the bar. When he entered, no one paid him any mind. He didn't bump anyone, he didn't ask any questions, he simply made his way over to the bartender and pointed at a drink that he wanted. Nodding slowly he reached for the bottle of Southern Comfort and sat the bottle down on the bar.
"Leave the bottle, Bartender." said the man. His voice was smooth as silk and his body language showed that he could handle himself in a rough situation. A neat scar began at his hairline, continued down over his right eye, and ended at the tip of his jaw. Of course, no one saw this, because of the helmet on his suit that always covered his face.. The man sat a credit chip on the bar for the good 'tender and opened the bottle.
"Rough day?" said someone to his right. He paid no mind to the stranger, the only thing that was on his mind was his bottle of liquor. The man to his right grunted at the silence and went back to his own devices. The dark haired man looked around the bar to the patrons that currently sat at the bar and their tables. The man to his right was a short blond haired man with a badge hanging from his uniform. Not like a military man to be at a bar in uniform. He grimaced as he took a swig of his bottle and looked to his left. A light skinned woman with red hair sat on his left. She looked like she had too many drinks in her system and was swaying back and forth.
Noted. he thought to himself at the people sitting around him.
Not very good people to be sitting next to. A drunk and a lawman. I need to move.
The man got up to move to another table, but was interrupted by someone at the door. "Archangel. I thought we told you not to come back here." said a voice at the door. The dark haired man sighed and let his shoulders hang with bottle in hand.
"You don't have control over a lawful controlled base, Jason." the man named Archangel replied looking over at him with his right eye. "Now, why don't you and your other friends leave here before you get hurt. I don't have time for Rogues nor any of your kind."
"Listen here, Merc-" he said advancing towards Arch. The lawman stood up from his chair and stood behind the dark haired man named Archangel.
"He's right, pirate. I suggest you leave here before things get out of hand." he said.
Arch smiled.
Hook, line, and sinker.
"I'll be back for you, -angel."
"I'm sure you will, Rogue."
The man grunted in disgust and waved his men on behind him as he left the bar.
"You know," said the lawman. "...you probably shouldn't be here either. The Navy is looking for you after the incident yesterday in New York."
"I know..." Archangel said turning to him. "I was just on my way out the door..." he tossed him the bottle of Southern Comfort. "Here, looks like you might need that more than me, Navy boy."
With that, he left the bar, without ever taking a drink.
* * * * *
My name is Jacob "Archangel" Keller. I was born in Kusari, or at least I think I was. I grew up on my own. My parents abandoned me on Honshu when I was only a newborn. A mercenary happened to find me on the street and raised me as his own son. He wasn't around much, always busy with bounties. He took me on a few of them, taught me the tricks of the trade. When I was 12 years old he got killed by a ruthless pirate. I wasn't too upset about it, I'm still not, he got what was coming to him in the end. From then on I really just drifted from place to place, taking missions where I could. I pirated, assassinated people, did whatever I had to do to get by.
When I was 18 I took a job that required me to get some implants. I didn't complain, even though it cost me all of my life's savings left by my would be father. I went and got them surgically implanted into my skull. Ever since then I've used them to help me get other jobs that I couldn't have before. Assassination missions are my favorite to go for these days. I'm able to react faster than someone else might. Not much faster mind you, but fast enough to save my ass in a hairy situation...that was proven in several instances.
Now, I'm 22 and still getting older. Since the first implants, I've gotten several more to enhance myself even further in my art. Not much more, mind you, just enough to want potential employers to want to pick me more over the other regular "joe." I had an assortment of fake ID's, fake transponders, and several different currencies. I had money stashed on almost every station across Sirius space in case things got really bad and I had to disappear. It'd never gotten that bad yet, but one thing my father always taught me in this craft, is to always have an escape plan lined up before heading into a situation...that saved my bacon from the incident in New York the previous week. I was able to retreat into Texas to Beaumont and disappear for a few days while it blew over.
Now I was heading back to Rheinland to have a conversation with my employer, whom which had set me up for failure in Liberty...to get me caught no less. Well, we were going to have a bit of a discussion with said person.
My RT (Raven's Talon) came through the jump-gate and into New Berlin. I had a series of incidents in Texas and Hudson trying to get around the Liberty lap dogs, but that didn't take much time to, "cut them out of the equation" if you will. New Berlin was dark as always, it's mammoth of a planet spinning in silence some distance from my view, an asteroid belt blocking some of my view of the planet.
As I flew through the trade-lane, en route to the planet, I wondered how I was going to be able to bypass a set series of guards, defenses, and other items set in my path to my new target. It wasn't going to be easy, considering this target was not only a senator, but a very popular one as well. But he had the taint of evil on him, and that just wasn't going to cut it. As I was thinking about these things, I came into orbit of New Berlin, security was on high detail...I knew this wasn't going to be easy.
"Unknown vessel. State your intentions or you will be shot."
"I'm here to see my sick mother." I said with my best accent that I could muster up.
"Transmit your docking codes now." I searched through my computer at the numerous codes that I had obtained over the years for situations such as these. There were so many in fact, I was having a very difficult time of finding one that would work. I found one and transmitted it to the Rheinlander, hoping he would buy it. Silence engulfed the small RT as I sat and waited for him to give me approval.
"This code is some years old...but it is still good. You are clear to land, Mr...James."
"Thank you." I said and flew towards the docking ring. The guns on the gunboats and ship followed me as I flew past them. Before I made it to the docking ring I heard the command to open fire on me and I punched it as hard as I could. Weapons fire lanced from behind me and struck the gate in several places as I docked. An ominous sound came from the gate as I made it past and began the trip down the magnetic elevator. Explosions sounded from the gate as it fell from orbit and began to plummet towards the surface. The magnetic lift destabilized and the atmosphere flooded in. Immediately, the RT shuddered and flames began coming off the sides. I belted myself in and quickly pulled the nose of the ship up to enter the atmosphere. Within a few minutes, the re-entry to the planet had passed. I looked up to the gate still falling to the surface, thousands of people would die...innocent people.
I pitched the ship sideways as it fell and fired my missiles at the gate, knocking large chunks off the metal, sending it spinning off into chunks that burned up in re-entry. I continued doing this until the ground was starting looking too close for comfort. Before the gate had reached the ground, hardly any of it was left. But what was left of it crashed into a park in downtown New Berlin and set everything on fire around it. I grimaced and hoped no innocent lives had been lost due to its destruction. I aimed my ship towards my mark...I just hoped he hadn't been moved already...
Dark clouds were bordering on the horizon, a storm was approaching from the ocean. New Berlin's winter season was coming early. That meant sub-freezing temperatures, harsh cold winds in excess of 40 knots at least, and heavy, heavy snow. Anyone caught on the leading edge of the storm would be snowed in for weeks, if not months. This was my chance to take him by force if he hadn't evacuated already...it was risky bringing in the RT under such circumstances, however...it was my only chance to take him by force.
I brought my ship in low and fast landing on a ridge just south of the good counselor's house. His house was no doubt guarded by security, I had no guess as to how many or how well they were armored, but I was sure I was going to take some serious hits from them if they were well armed, so I decided it was best if I geared up as I would on any mission. Standard leg, arm, chest, and head armor to prevent any damage to any weak spot on my body. My "Heads up Display", better known as a "HUD", inside the helmet would help significantly in identifying weapons, armor, and would prevent me from going blind in case a flash blizzard hit the shore anytime before I made inside the house. Gloves to prevent my hands from icing over completely, each with built in heaters. True, the heaters might slow me down slightly if I got into hand to hand combat, but I was willing to keep my fingers if that meant a little slower combat. I also equipped my armor plated boots, just in case I decided to slip on the cliff face, or if the snow got to deep, my feet wouldn't freeze. I put two semi-auto assault rifles on my back along with an M9 on my waist, one in my ankle holster, and several knives placed on my person.
I closed the ship's hatch and began the slow climb up the ridge face. It took the better part of thirty minutes to reach the apex of the ridge. As I climbed over the top, snow began to fall. Slow at first, and then it seemed as if the world around me was completely white. I reached to my helmet and tapped the receiver clearing the world around me as if no snow was falling. The thing about the helmet, is it would be set to any temperature reading that I so desired. The snow was falling to the ground at a temperature of 16 degrees Fahrenheit, very cold for this time of year. So I set the visor to detect a temperature range of only 40 degrees, thus, the snow was no longer visible.
As I came up on the Counselor's house, I noticed that the lights were indeed still on and functioning as they would if he were home. Just as I expected, two guards just inside the door stood watch over the mansion, a police interceptor ship sat just outside the door, powered up and ready to go in case they needed emergency transport somewhere in the Capital. I bit my lip underneath my helmet, this wasn't going to be easy. I continued scouting the house interior from outside and counted at least six more guards just from viewing outside. The house was guarded like a government facility, he wasn't taking any chances. He had probably already heard about my escape into the border worlds towards Rheinland.
I decided the best entry was through the rear french door from the large deck extending off the rear platform of the house. The front was far too guarded, and they would never expect me to be able to climb up a large flight of stairs to the deck 20 feet above my position. Slowly, I began to climb the steps, making sure not to make any noise. The snow was now reaching a height of close to one foot already, and I was sure if I didn't get this taken care of soon, I wouldn't be able to leave the house quick enough if it got much worse.
"You think this guy's really coming here?" I heard someone say and slowly crouched down, two guards standing guard outside in full weather gear.
"Nah, there's no way he's suicidal enough to come out in this storm. Even if he did, he'd be as blind as we are. I can't see my hand in front of my face right now." said the other. "It's a damned blizzard. No ship can fly in this without the risk of crashing into something."
"Yeah, you're probably right...I've just got this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, like something bad's going to happen..."
"The only bad thing that'll happen, is if you get hit by a snowdrift off the top of this roof, and THAT would be rather hilarious."
I brought my assault rifle up slowly and shot the first guard directly in the temple and sprayed the second one as he turned to look at what had downed his comrade. He was still moving when I got to the top of the deck. He was reaching for his radio as I fired the last silenced shot into his skull and watched him lay still. I looked around silently at the area. Snow was reaching close to 0 degrees and that meant the storm was about to get much worse, if I was to get this taken care of, I had to move quickly...I quietly slid the french door back and stepped into the house. I was like a ghost...
The storm outside was intensifying. The winds alone were causing the house to pop and crackle, shudders outside slammed into the house, and the howl of the wind alone was enough to significantly mask my movement through out the house even if I had been walking normally. I wasn't taking any chances, however. I continued to move quietly through the house.
As I reached the archway into the hallway from the kitchen, I noticed a guard standing down the hall, next to the staircase leading upwards to the second floor. The stairs were down the hall and an immediate 180 degrees to the right of the wall I was staring at now. Two more guards were standing opposite to him, keeping watch down the hall. This presented a problem. I would be unable to take out the single guard standing watch at the staircase without alerting the other two. If I was unable to take out all three at the same time, the other guards assorted out amongst the house would be alerted to my presence, and I would be captured, compromising my tech and equipment...but the only way up stairs was by that one single staircase, and there were three targets.
I quietly pulled out my personal blaster and equipped the silencer to the end of the barrel. I leaned around the corner, got a quick sight of where they were standing and leaned back. I took one breath and came around the corner quickly taking three well aimed shots to their heads. All three dropped to the ground dead...however I made an error...after all, I'm only human. A guard to the right was missed and sounded the alarm. The front door splintered open as the two out front came running back in. I magnetized my gloves and unsheathed the two assault rifles from my back harness. I was firing an assortment of fire at the targets, but before I knew it, I was out of ammo. As I turned to make a retreat, I was met with a stun baton, and the world went black...but only for a second...the world came rushing back as the resistance in the suit brought me back from the stun, I headbutted the guard sending him staggering back into the closet at the end of the hall. I brought up my handgun and shot him twice in the head. He fell to the ground in a seated position.
"Stop!" someone said. "I'll come down, Jacob. No more innocent blood needs to be shed this day."
"Who said they're innocent..." I replied through the helmets integrated headset.
The two guards running at me stopped their approach with weapons drawn. I smiled at them from beneath the helmet and turned my head sideways. With my own handgun drawn.
"How much you want to bet I can kill you both before either of you get a shot off?"
The guards shifted, clearly unsettled.
"I will tell you what you want to know, Jacob." said the older man approaching me. The Counselor had his hands up as he approached me slowly. "But I know it won't save my life, will it?"
"It depends on if you're innocent...we'll see what you have to say old man...tell me what I want to know...and I may yet let you live."
The Councilman set his drink down on a nightstand and stood for a moment looking at the window. He took a long sigh and turned around to look at me for a moment. He picked up his drink and came back over to the chair that was close to me and sat down.
"Have a seat, Jacob." he said motioning to the chair.
"I'll stand, thank you." I replied.
"Suit yourself." he said taking a long swig. "Always hits the spot."
"Get on with it, old man. I don't have time for pleasantries."
"You're a man of action, forgive me. The attack you were asked to carry out was not an attempt on your life, I can assure you of that my friend. I would never double cross you, I know the weight that it carries if I do. You're one of the best in Sirius space. Anyone who would consider double crossing you is both naive and stupid if they think they would get away with it in anyway. What happened was a tragic leak of some sorts."
"A leak from whom, Councilman. I believe that your words are true and sincere, as you are a man of honor. I've always thought this. You're a man who knows evil when he sees it and wants it to be taken care of. I'm not going to kill you, but there's no doubt that you have a leak somewhere. Somewhere in this house probably. Maybe I've already taken care of them on my way in, but that's no guarantee. I suggest we call this off until we're able to find the leak."
"I agree, Jacob. It's for the best...but there's one other thing-"
Before he could continue his sentence, a bullet came through the window and clipped the old man's neck, nicking his jugular vein in his neck. He gasped and fell over in his chair to the floor, I quickly dove through the doorway and out into the hallway. I reloaded my handgun and sat quietly.
"J-Jacob..." the Councilman said. "Y-you're not-"
"Quiet." I said. "There's no need to explain, I understand all that's happened."
"N-no." he said weakly as weapons fire echoed from downstairs. "Get into m-my safe in the b-ba-basement. There's information th-that y-ou...need to see..." he said and gave his last breath of air, laying dead with his eyes open. He was a good man, he didn't deserve this.
I checked all my equipment as the weapons fire stopped downstairs. I ensured that everything was in working order as I began to make my way for the basement. Whoever this was...they were another assassin, possibly in the same league as me to be able to see through the blizzard, enough to get a clear shot at the man. Sure, whoever they were missed his head, but it wasn't an easy shot, being able to hit him at all was impressive...
...with that last though, I began to move silently through the house, aiming for the basement door at the other end of the house.
By the time I reached the final stair on the landing, the gunfire outside had ceased and the house was quiet. I paused there, at the bottom stair, for a few seconds...listening to the wind howl outside. I subtracted that sound and listened to the groaning of the house in the resolute silence of the growing storm. The house popped, the kitchen flooring, I looked to my left and noticed a closet with the door slightly opened. I quickly moved into the closet and quietly closed the door enough to hide my location but still see out enough to get a glimpse at the assassin.
There he was, moving like a ghost through the house interior towards the stairs. He quietly climbed the staircase up towards the room where the Councilmans body laid. If I were to get to the basement, I had to wait until he got to the second landing before making my move. I stood quietly watching the man reach the first landing without incidentand then he stopped, frozen in place.
He looked towards the closet.
*Click* went his handgun, then that stairwell became the place of Armageddon for a brief moment. I brought my gun up and kicked open the door and fired two shots. One missed, the other connected at the mans thigh. He groaned and returned fire, clipping my shoulder socket. Wincing I rolled over to the doorway on the other side of the stairs.
I threw the handgun aside and quickly brought my hands to my back and magnetized the palms, bringing the assault rifles into my hands. I spun the guns around as the man reached the bottom stair and fired three quick bursts into his armor, sending him reeling backwards towards the closet. He fired two shots off in my direction as he retreated back towards the kitchen, one of them nicking my helmet, the other clipping my hip.
Again, I winced in pain as it shot through me. I wasn't used to getting hurt like this, it was rare I ran into someone as good as I was at the craft of killing. I moved as quietly as I could towards the front door near where the door to the basement was. I leaned against the wall and looked to my shoulder. I felt the back and realized the bullet hadn't left my body. I winced further as I dug my finger into the wound and let the bullet fall into my hand.
"You're Jacob Keller, aren't you?" the man said. "You know, you're the whole reason I started doing this...youre like my idol."
"You regularly shoot your idols do you?"
"It's just a job, doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Oh, well thats just lovely. Then that means I wont have to like doing this." I said hitting the wrist communicator telling my Raven's Talon to fly up towards the house. I looked at the camera and guided the ship towards the house windows and aimed through them to there the man was standing in the kitchen. The look of shock on his eyes was priceless.
"Now", I said "I don't want to have to tear up this lovely mans house anymore than I already have. Because I'm sure someone in his family is going to want it back after they know he's passed away...so...I'm going to give you two choices here, rookie. One, you drop your weapons where you are, and leave out the back door, the way you came in...or two, you do something foolish, and I let the anti-matter weaponry on my ship turn you to ash and destroy what this poor man worked for his entire life...its up to you, rook."
"Jesus, you really are the best at what you do, you know that?"
"So I've been told."
The man dropped his weapons and held his hands up in the air as he left the house, down the stairs, and off into the distance. I sighed and collapsed into a seated position on the floor breathing deeply. I sat there for a few minutes, catching my breath. With a few pushes of my wrist comm, I landed the ship just outside the house and powered down the lights to avoid anyone noticing the ship at first glance.
I searched the house for anything of use. I found some thread, alcohol in the fridge, a few needles, and some salt. With these, I set to work patching up my wounds. True, it hurt like hell, but it needed to be done. After my wounds were stitched up, I opened the door to the basement and slowly descended into the darkness, weapon drawn. At the end of the staircase was a sharp turn into a finished and elegantly furnished basement. The lights came on as I walked down the steps and up to the safe that was left standing open. A folder was left on top with the words Project Icarus written on the front. I picked it up, along with everything else left in the safe and deposited them into a bag on my person.
Just as I did, a huge explosion rocked the house, shaking the very foundation. My wrist comm. blipped as the dust settled, and words lit up across the screen.
"You may be the best, Jacob Keller, but I'm better."
Even before the explosion upstairs, the house still looked like it'd been hit by a tornado. Bodies laid around the house bleeding out onto the oak floors, paneling around the walls had been ripped off, bullet and plasma holes through the ceiling, the list went on. But the explosion really was the final blow. As I made it back to the top of the stairs, I noticed how much damage the explosion caused. It wasn't enough to kill anyone, especially me in my suit. Whoever that man was, he wanted to send a message that I wasn't the only assassin in Sirius anymore. If he had spoken truth about me being his idol, then that means he knew of my previous exploits and missions and more than likely knew exactly what to do.
I would say I was flattered...but...
I made it back outside and to my ship within a few minutes. As I flew away from the house, I activated the button on the side of the helmet and allowed it to open with a hiss and retract back into it's housing on the back of my collar. The ship was musty inside from running for so long so I decided to activate the circulation system inside the ship. As my ship approached where the ring was before, I noticed several police cruisers sitting just above the planet in a synchronous orbit. Quickly, I activated my planetary escape rockets and immediately felt the gee-forces pulling me into my seat.
As I cleared the orbit of the planet and into space, the ships quickly began pursuit of my RT. Without a second thought, I activated the jumpdrive, and jumped into hyperspace, towards...home.
although home wasn't an exact term for it. Barrier Gate Station was where I "woke up" after two years of memory loss. Since then a lot of things had changed. The discovery of several new systems, new factions springing up from the ashes of others, and the completion of Barrier Gate, one of the stations I had helped fund before my sudden memory loss. I was told that I had been sick for those two years and rarely left the station unassisted; amnesia was a side-effect of the illness they had said. But what was funny was, I had gone through my medical records and found no unusual side ailments or medical records indicating to the fact of my sickness.
When I took this up with the doctors on the station, they said it must have been some kind of a "glitch" in the systems that had erased the previous data. What was also odd was that there were several scars on my body that hadn't been there before, including some on the back of my head, and scarred burn marks on my hands. When I asked about those, they said that because of the sickness, my brain had swollen to a size too large for my skull to hold, and they had to drill holes into the back of my head to relive the pressure built up inside. The palms, they had no excuse for, saying that perhaps I had them from another place, but simply didn't remember.
The further I dug, the more irritated I got. Until, I eventually gave up and continued my mission as a mercenary. I had been a long time member of the CoC, a quasi-legal mercenary group based out of Sigma-13 before, until we moved to Barrier Gate in the Coronado system. Lots of interesting characters came here from time to time. Some were looking for sanctuary from those who hunted them, others were simply drifters looking for a place to stay. I paid no mind to any of them...the only person I was ever interested in was our piece of sh*t leader: Paul Winslow. The fat a*s never left his office, and used the money that we made during missions to feed his "lifestyle". I hated the rat bastard.
I jumped back into the edge of the system and flew the rest of the way by cruise engine. It took me a little over 10 minutes to enter within scanner range of the station. I submitted my docking code and entered into the docking port. A few minutes later, I crawled out of the ship with my helmet back covering my face. I had a thing about showing my face to anyone aboard the station, and so far I hadn't revealed my face to anyone, including to the good ol' leader.
"Jacob." said someone running up as I crawled out of my Roc. "You really pissed off the Rhienlanders."
"Yeah?" I replied. "Good, they had it coming to them. Any indication they knew it was us?"
"The CoC? I don't think so. They're saying it was 'Jacob Keller', who is wanted for," the man cleared his throat and did the best impersonation of the news caster. "...'expert piloting and dangerous goals. If you see this man, report him immediately.'"
I laughed. This was a good friend of mine, Albert Rodriguez. His mother was an Outcast, and his father a Bretonian bureaucrat. Not the best mix, but he was a good man nonetheless.
"Well, Al, it's time for me to get outta here. I'll be in touch a little later."
"Righto, sir. See you."
I hated it when he called me sir, I never figured it out, but I just did.
Another day passed inside Barrier Gate, another day with little to no activity on the bounty boards. Sure, there were plenty of bounties to go kill pirates, but we didn't kill pirates for the sole reason that they contributed to the chaos inside the house systems. There were a few low paying ones for blanket bounties that would pay between one and four million credits up in Kusari, but those were boring. As usual, the fat a*s up in the "penthouse" stayed up in his room all nice and cozy with his whores and food. I swear I'd be the one to kill him if it killed me myself.
I decided I would update a few things on the RT and start outfitting my new Roc that I recently acquired from a few friends down in Bering. The RT was the easy one. All I had to do was simply unbolt my old thruster and re-equip the new one that I had gotten from the dealer here on the station. Once that was finished, I looked over to the bare Roc bomber and all the parts that lay around it. I sighed and got to work on putting it all together. The weapons were the first to go on the ship, specially made for bombers only and perfectly suited for the task. Once I had managed to load up the weapons on the ship, I started with the torpedoes. The SNAC weighed a TON and took me and two other people to get it connected to the underside of the ship. The Reinforced Cruise Disruptor was pretty easy and it only took me to hook it up to the frame.
After a while, the ship was finished and I took it out for a test flight. While it wasn't nearly as fast as my RT, it was still quick enough to do some serious damage to anyone who might get in my way; I was pleased with the results. Now I had two ships, the makings of my very own fleet. I smiled to myself under the helmet and made the way for my room aboard the station. A shower was in order along with a read of a good book, perhaps.
As I got to my room I turned and closed the door, locking it with my encrypted algorithm that only I would know. Breaking it would be next to impossible. I pressed the button on the side of my helmet and allowed it to slide backwards into my collar. I wiped the little sweat that was on my brow off and pressed two more buttons on my chest, allowing the rest of the suit from my waist up to compress down into what looked like a belt. I unhooked the front and carried it over to the wash closet and sat it down on the grating. I did the same with the pants. They folded down slowly into my boots and the rear of the boots hissed and clicked open, allowing me to step out of them. I sat them inside the closet too and closed it, setting the wash cycle for 30 minutes.
The door buzzed.
"I'm not taking any damned visitors." I said loudly.
"Jacob, it's me!" hissed Al.
"Well, too bad."
"Let me in, quickly!"
I looked down at myself standing in my tank top and sweats. Cursing I quickly opened the door and closed it again, resealing it. I was revealing true identity to Al, something I wasn't very keen about.
"What is it?" I said clearly irritated.
"There's a coup being planned." he said quickly. "Sometime in the near future. The others are sick and tired of this crap with no bounties."
"Yeah?...and why are you telling me this for?" I said walking towards the bathroom and starting the shower.
"Because, the men want you to lead us."
I stopped in mid step.
"What?"
"Look, I've never seen you up until now without your helmet on, but even before then I could tell from your face that you were a true leader. Someone who knows how to make things work, how to get **** done."
"Al, I am not going to lead the CoC even after that fat ba*tard up stairs is dead. So you can forget it. Find someone else to lead the CoC, I'm not doing it."
"Then you're dooming us to failure, Jake."
I paused at the bathroom door and looked back at Al.
"I'll think about it...and forget that you ever saw my face. If you tell anyone else, I'll kill you myself." I said slamming the door.
So much for reading that book.
I aimed my ship for Liberty as I always had before when I found bounties. It seemed like Liberty was breeding tons of idiots and that more and more bounties were being formed to take them out. I flew into New York through the Badlands and continued on through the system, heading towards the Pennsylvania system. Once I came through, I noticed that there were no system comms, no ships...no nothing. Activity was non-existent...except for the two ships that sat in front of me.
Navy IFF's.
I sat in space for a moment, eyeballing them as they did me. They sat between me and the tradelane to the area my target.
"You are not cleared to proceed, pilot." they said in a monotone voice. "Turn back to New York and stay there until we say it is clear."
"Well, you see. I have a target here. Said target is worth a nice chunk of change and I intend on getting to it first. Now, if you'll please get out of my way, I'll find him, kill him, collect my money, and be on my way." I answered inching my ship forward. The one on the right spoke first, this time with a bit more emotion.
"Listen, pilot. We have our orders. We are to keep everyone out of this system, unlawfuls included, with no hostile actions. We don't want to have to attack you 2 on 1, but we will if you don't leave the area immediately."
"2 on 1. Ha-ha. You think you'd be able to do anything to my ship? You two should be scared of me wiping YOU out."
"Last chance, Keller." said the man inching the ship closer to mine.
"Last chance indeed!" I replied spinning my throttle to full.
The pilot to the right lanced outwards away from me quickly, attempting to dodge the EMP missile I had fired at him, but he pulled right too slow and the missile slammed into his shields, dropping them. Directly after that, he slammed into a mine I had dropped and his ship exploded. The other pilot did a 180 and took the lane back to where he had come from, screaming that there was an intruder.
"Intruder?" something said over the system comms. "Yes...I recognize him...Jacob Keller. Come to Planet Erie, Jacob. I have so many things to show you."
"Ok..." I said to myself. "...time to leave the creepy chick with the creepy voice in Penn and time for me to kindly get the f-"
"Language mister!"
"...jumping out of here."
I made a bee-line for Buffalo in the badlands. As I was flying, the voice came back.
"You know, Jacob, you can run, but you can never hide."
"Who the hell are you?" I said over the comms.
"I'm not a who I'm a what. And I'm the thing that knows you better than you know yourself, Jacob...I am Nemesis."