Buffalo, a home for a long time, but not recently. It was a place I had frittered away some time, putting off what I knew needed to be done. Frankly even I was scared to do it, and I have never scared easily. Not when I was trading and certainly not when I was here.
Buffalo hadn't changed, but to be honest I hadn't expected it to, Rogue's were creatures of habit and they wouldn't alter anything unless it was utterly necessary. But before I put any plan into motion I needed three things, money, a place to base from and some pilots. First one I had, other two...well that's why I'm here. To talk to one man, the man who sat in my chair. The Crime Boss of the Liberty Rogues.
As I walked into the bar I immediately noticed the quiet.
"Guess you folks remember me, eh?" I chuckled quietly "Well then given that fact one of you scum better run and find your boss, cuz I want a word, and I'm not given to waiting too long."
One of the folks got up and left. Though I didn't lead anymore it was likely that they hadn't forgotten that messing with me was unwise.
I gained the attention of one of the bar staff and ordered a drink. Now I just waited to see who led this gang of misfits.
A weird guy walks into the bar at Buffalo. His dirty Overall, which was probably red a few years ago, now only shining orange in the bar's light are still wet from blood. Yet the guy doesnt seem to be bleeding.
He looks around and notices a person sitting in the corner, a drink on the table.
I heard you're searching for the Boss? he said. I gotta tell ya that he's living in Alberta, at Fort McMurray. If you want to talk to him you'll have to move there, or just take the neuralnet. Though this could be risky. He's working on some stuff there, even the base changed a lot. New stuff from the Hackers, I dont know any of this scrap though. Anyway, if you wanna talk to him, you'll know what to do. He'll unlikely appear here.
The man nervously looks around, especially to the doors. I have to go. he says and quickly leaves the bar.
Interesting. Fort McMurray... Seemed a little odd, at least to me, I'd always based out of Alcatraz personally and used Buffalo to talk to demanding bastards like myself. McMurray seemed an awful long way from the heart of Liberty to stay focused. Which probably meant something was up.
I headed out, back to the hangar and back to my ship "Broken Promise" I'd named her to remind myself of the one thing I had failed in. But I could recover from that failure, there was still time to complete my work. Still time. Time was something I'd always had in abundance and now suddenly it seemed like there was hardly any left at all.
I set the ship to auto pilot, plotted my course to Mcmurray and hit the cabin, it would take a few hours maybe days, but at least this ship could use lanes. This ship wasn't wanted by just about everyone in Liberty, at least not yet. That could change soon.
As conscienceness faded I slipped into my usual nightmare.
I awoke to find myself near the Alberta jumphole, just a few clicks from Red Deer station. The ship was still making it's own way and I felt no need to disturb it. Instead I began to think about how I would start anew with my plan. What would I need in terms of munitions and supplies in order to make this work and where would be a good target.
Liberty needed a wake up call, needed to be shown that not everyone would take it's disregard for it's people lying down. I had always believed I was the one to do it, but unlike before I now knew I would need help. Setting myself up as some space borne crime kingpin had only delayed the retribution I'd had planned for so long. It was time to go back to what I had intended since I first staged the Manhattan protest massacre. So long ago, so much time passed, and here I was still no closer to my goal.
I watched the stars come back into focus as the ship passed beyond the event horizon of the jumphole. Soon I would be at McMurray and soon I would gain an audience with the new crime boss of the Rogues, and if he knew what was good for him he'd give me what I wanted.
I docked with McMurray and immediately noticed the difference between here and Buffalo, whereas Buffalo was metropolitan enough, McMurray was a s backwater a place as you could get, the usual hustle and bustle of a docking bay was not evident. Clearly ships didn't dock here much. I didn't have to wait long before a dock monkey came my way. I told him to take care of the ship and then went to find this new crime boss.
Walking through the endless maze of tunnels I cam across two young Rogues walking arm in arm. 'How cute' I thought to myself before grabbing the girl and looking sternly at her companion.
"Rules are simple boy, find me the Boss and I let her go. Take too long and she dies. How painfully depends entirely upon how I feel. Now run."
His footsteps could be heard down the corridor long after he was lost from sight. All I had to do now was wait.
The young lad is scared. Looking to his girlfriend, tears running down her face. He turns around again and moves along the corridor. A light zapping they arrive an Elevator. He presses the button and waits. "You know, thats just a whore I grabbed up from the Bar, I dont really care what is going to happen to her, but you want to meet the Boss, he's having something for you. I guess"
The Elevator arrives, all three silently enter it and the young lad presses the red button on top all other buttons. The inside is dark and rusty, yet bright enough to see the tears of that woman. The elevator stops with a squeaking noise and the door opens for another corridor, but its not dark as the one before. Getting close to the end there are two muscular Rogues sitting at a tiny table playing a game with some old cards made of paper.
The young lad walks towards them: "Guys, I got this one here for the Boss" he chuckles "Bring him to Danny, so that I can have fun with that girl." The young lad walks off, grabbing the girl "Now stop crying you little whimp" and they vanish into the old Elevator. The both big lads already opened a door and Sylpheed is ready to make the step into the room.