Discovery Gaming Community

(part 1. Won't be finished for a while, send comments anytime.)


"This is taking too long... damned LSF security," a blond woman complained quietly, smacking her computer. "Finally. So that's the Starblazer pilot that nearly took me down..."

File opened.
Name: Floyd "Mouse" Roberts
Year of Birth: 790 AS
Education: Four-year degree from the University of Cambridge.
Experience: Two years as a private investigator, three years in the Liberty Security Force
Recent Assignments:
ACCESS DENIED!
Enter password to continue.
>liberty4092

"Damn it... that password was no good. I guess they're improving."

>run /home/Nall/InfinityGenerator.exe
Access Granted.

"Well, that only took five minutes longer than it should've... hopefully they haven't tracked me yet."

Recent Assignments: Pursued five known serial killers into Bretonia. Spent a year in Kusari gathering information regarding the war with Bretonia.
Related Files: Personal_Log.arc

"Didn't expect this... time go get to know this 'Mouse' character."

Saving Personal_Log.arc to portable storage device.
Saving personnel file to portable storage device.
She pockets the storage drive for future use, just in case.
Extracting Log1.vid from Personal_Log.arc...
Initiating video playback...

The camera appears to be situated in a CT-series fighter, either a Hawk or Griffin. Through the window, the beautiful blue nebulae of the Shikoku system are clearly visible. To the left of the camera, you can clearly see Floyd Roberts, a short, thin man in a grey coat and hat. A squad of Kusari "Dragon" fighters, led by a Chimaera, approaches the lone civilian craft.

"Konichiwa, Mr. Roberts. We've been expecting you."

"That's good to hear, I was worried that the paperwork hadn't gone through right. Forgive me for asking, but why do you want a freelancer to escort your supply convoys? The military seems much better-suited to that job."

"From what I've heard of you, I am certain you know the value of keeping under the radar. But I'll say no more. Come with us."

The Chimaera led Floyd through a jump gate, then to a jump hole in the New Tokyo system. A quick scan indicates that it is the Fukukoa jump hole. The Chimaera pilot commanded Floyd to remain where he is, and instructed the Dragons to ensure that he complied. Approximately a half hour later, five more freelancers appeared - a pair of Eagles, a Stiletto, a Havoc MkII, and a Tiger Shark.

"So much for us staying under the radar," Floyd mumbled, scanning each ship and saving the results for later examination. An hour after that, an unmarked Train crawled out of the Fukukoa jump hole. Floyd's efforts to scan the ship revealed nothing about its cargo.

"This cargo goes to Battleship Nagasaki, stationed in the Tau-31 system," the train's captain said through the comm system, his voice indicating disdain for the freelancers accompanying him.

The trip through Kyushu was uneventful, though Floyd got to know the Havoc pilot a bit. Apparently, she was born in Bretonia, and wasn't particularly happy about the war. He quickly suspected that she, much like himself, wasn't actually a freelancer. In fact, he started suspecting that this was true of all of the "freelancers" accompanying this train... and suspecting that the Kusari already knew that.

In Tau-29, however, a group of Bretonian privateers attacked the transport, very stubbornly at that... as though they knew it was from the Kusari Naval Forces.

"Well what're you standing there for? Kill them!" the train captain barked.

"That won't be necessary," Floyd said over private comms with the bomber. "If we just take out their weapons, they'll have no choice but to flee."

The freelancers quickly, though somewhat sloppily, engaged the squad of Templars, Hussars, and Challenger, disabling the bomber and light fighters, but they continued flying to interfere with their efforts to get rid of the Templars. Whatever was in that train, they wanted badly enough to risk death.

"Damn gaijin can never do a job right. Gunners, fire!"

Suddenly, powerful blasts of energy were fired from the transport, ripping through the Bretonian craft as though they were paper. Nothing from those ships was salvagable, the scrap left over was useless even by scrap metal standards. The Havoc was also hit by part of the blast, but its escape pod remained intact, and was quickly retrieved by Floyd.

Such a fight only happened once. On the way back, an ambush had been set by Bretonian gunships and bombers, but the train stayed with the battleship; the "freelancers" were able to evade without any damage. Upon returning to New Tokyo, Floyd was contacted by the Chimaera pilot he met when he first arrived.

"Mr. Roberts, this is Chūsa Hayate Kouryo. I have arranged for apartments for you and your fellow freelancers. You and the bomber pilot will be sharing one. I will show you where it is when you land."

"Understood, thank you for your hospitality. She may be needing a new ship, though..."

"I heard the report. I will see what I can do; she wouldn't have lost that ship had it not been for the actions of our pilot and gunners."

The camera turns off... but Floyd appears again, staring directly into the screen, with only a black background behind him.

"Hello, Alicia."

"GAH!"

"Turn around."

She turned, saw Floyd standing right in front of her, and was essentially paralyzed with surprise.

"You know, if you wanted to get to know me," he said with a smirk while slipping a small device into his coat pocket, "you should've just said so. Shooting at me certainly wasn't the way to go." He walked up to the computer, pushed Alicia's wheeled chair out of his way, deleted all the files related to him that she had accessed, and began walking away. He stopped, turned his head toward her, and said "Hm... We're not that different, you and I. Stealthy, efficient, resourceful... and we both intend to make Liberty a better place. I'll let you go this time."

He walked out and closed the door, leaving Alicia staring at the door in shock. Blackmoon had been outwitted... yet she was still alive.

Why?

A young, brown-haired woman walked down the halls of Alcatraz Depot, carrying food and some sort of drink. Whatever it was, it wasn't water.

Which room was it again? 2B? Or... no, definitely 2B, she thought to herself, walking up to the room her friend was staying in. "Alicia? Alicia, come on, let me in. I brought you dinner."

"Not hungry, Amber. Go away."

Amber sighed, and popped open the keypad that controlled the door's lock in the event of emergencies. Remembering what Alicia had taught her, and smiling at the irony, she switched a few wires around, reattached the keypad, and entered the factory default code, 1379. As the door slid open, Amber saw Alicia sitting silently on her bed. She looked like she hadn't slept in weeks, and her glasses were folded up on the table.

"Alicia, you look tired, and no one's seen you eat all day. What's wrong?" Amber asked, sitting next to Alicia and putting her arm around her friend. Alicia sighed, knowing that she'd end up telling Amber eventually, so she told the whole story; how she'd nearly lost a fight with a Starblazer, how she'd been outwitted and outhacked by an LSF agent, and everything else that had happened on that miserable day.

"We all have our off days. A Navy patrol nearly caught my weapon shipment on the way here, in fact. Now, you could stay here like this, or you could look at this guy as a challenge."

"You're right, I can kick this guy's ass next time. Thanks Amber. And thanks for the food."

"I only have one other question."

"Mm?"

"Was he cute?"

"Go away!"

Amber laughed, and walked out of the room, leaving Alicia to eat and perhaps finally get some rest.


Meanwhile, elsewhere in Sirius...

"Huh. Wouldn't expect someone like her to have done all that," Floyd said to no one in particular as he scanned through Alicia Nall's file. Murder (executed with admirable precision, the LSF agent noted), destruction of corporate property, destruction of military property, assault, piracy, numerous counts of violation of trade secrets, dealing of arms to pirates and terrorists... And she looked so sweet and harmless, too.

He decided that perhaps he should review his logs of the Malachite incident. He considered his actions in Kusari to be a great learning tool. Perhaps he had forgotten a few mistakes he made.

> /home/Mouse/logs/freelance/Log2.vid
Log2.vid opened.
Initiating video playback...

Two people were sitting at a table in an apartment on New Tokyo in the evening. Starfliers, Hawks, Drones, and Drakes could be seen through the window, gradually thinning out from afternoon traffic. At one side of the table sat Floyd, still wearing a long, grey coat and a grey fedora. Across from him sat a black-haired Bretonian woman, the bomber pilot without a bomber.

"No Train can handle guns like that..." Floyd said quietly, thinking about the battle from the day before.

"What are you talking about, Floyd?"

"Transport turrets are strong, but... not enough to destroy a bomber with an indirect hit, nevermind what happened to those Templars..." His tone quickly changed from a contemplative one to a questioning one, however. "Allison, I have to ask, why did you take this job?"

"Excuse me?"

"The question was quite straightforward," he replied, rather annoyed by her response.

"I need the money," Allison replied sadly. "I don't really have any other options." Floyd was unconvinced. She could've taken a job with BMM, BowEx, Gateway, or even the Bretonian Armed Forces... but then, perhaps she had taken a job with the Bretonian Armed Forces. "So, do you want to look around and see what we can do here?" she asked, clearly wanting to change the subject. "Sitting in this apartment all the time would get boring quickly."

"No, I've got something to work on. I rented a Starblazer for you, though, so you can go wherever you like."

She thanked Floyd, and left. When she was gone, Floyd set up a small computer he had kept in a box in his bedroom, and connected a datapad to it. What the other Freelancers didn't know was that he had managed to get a copy of their ships' recordings, only getting Allison's because she also kept a recorder in the cockpit, which went into the escape pod when the ship was lost. The recordings confirmed that those were not standard transport turrets. Each shot was actually two consecutive blasts; this wasn't clearly visible in the battle, but explained why the ships fell so fast. The first hit destroyed their shields, the second hit the hull directly. The shots themselves looked unusual too, not like the normal laser blasts.

"What the hell are these people working on?" Floyd asked a senior LSF agent over a secured channel. "Bah, that's no help. Hold up, I'm getting another message." Floyd pressed a few buttons, and switched over to the incoming message, closing the LSF communication just to be safe. "This is Floyd Roberts, go ahead. Ah, Mr. Kouryo, good to hear from you. No, she's not here right now, but I'll give her the message. Certainly, we'll see you then."

End of file. Video playback terminated.

As Floyd closed the video player on his computer, a small text box came up. All it said was "Thanks, Floyd."

"... Alicia."

A routine patrol in California, Floyd told them. Keeping an eye out for pirates, he said. He wouldn't need any backup. Well, keeping an eye out for pirates was half-true. Keeping an eye out for pirate would be more accurate. His Virage's weapons were online, his scanner was actively searching for a specific identification code... that of the Lane Hacker calling herself "Blackmoon". All intelligence indicated that she was in the system, yet she was nowhere to be found. Neither along the lanes nor in the typical pirate hiding spots. He headed back toward New York, but suddenly, in the middle of the lane between the Magellan jump gate and Planet Los Angeles and still hidden within the ice cloud, he hit a nuclear mine and was quickly attacked; the Hacker was hunting, not hiding.

He quickly responded, expending multiple batteries to quickly recharge his shields and turned his Virage toward the Hacker... yet when he turned, she was gone. He thwarted an attempted attack from the rear with a mine of his own, and turned toward her again. Her cruise engines were active, she appeared to be retreating. However, when he pursued, she spun around, shot a cruise disruptor, and fired her thrusters to get behind him. She then ran directly into a mine that disabled her shields. This impact shook her ship enough for Floyd to get her into his sights and fire off her laser cannons, but by this time she was ready to engage in a normal fight. Bolts of blue and red energy were all over the ice cloud and enough mines were discharged that any passing smuggler would be killed, the fight went on for half an hour. Eventually, however, Floyd shot off Alicia's last gun with his one remaining Heavy Flashpoint.

"You gave me more of a challenge last time, Alicia. Stick with the computers from now on, lady, if you ever get out of prison," the LSF agent taunted as he slowly approached the apparently-disabled Slipstream. Suddenly, Alicia fired up her engines and slammed into the unshielded Virage, knocking off its final gun.

"You're not bringing me in today, Roberts, or ever," she said as she disappeared into the mist.

Floyd then remembered something: he had done the same thing himself a year ago, in Kusari. She must've learned that from him...