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+--- Thread: The Rise of Jacob Keller (/showthread.php?tid=29545)
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 01-15-2010
I ran for what felt like days. The ship found me where ever I sat down, where ever I docked. It was like a relentless spectre that wouldn't leave my soul be. I knew that I had to escape, that I had to dodge this mass of metal and electrodes. That's all I knew, I didn't know why, but something deep down, somewhere inside my mind knew that it didnt want to get an autograph.
I landed on Freeport 9 just before the damn thing came into the system right behind me. I had only a few seconds before I was able to sneak through the cloud and into Omicron Eta. Now, at that time, I had several incidents with the people of the system, both Corsair and Outcast. Neither side truly appreciated my helping the other side, as it were, with smuggling operations here and there. However, I never helped them fight one another, so neither side was really angry at me, just on very thin ice.
I came barreling through the hole and immediately engaged cruise as I saw the space around me come into view. Shortly after I passed the cloud surrounding the hole, once again, the ship came into view. The Outcasts, I had overheard once, attacked an AI ship when it was carrying Nomads in its hold. This could possibly mean that the Outcasts wouldn't be very happy about the ship being inside Outcast space. I smiled and spun my ship, aiming for the Outcast side of the system. As expected, the ship behind me did as well. As we passed the barrier separating the system between the two factions, an Outcast battleship came into view on scanners.
"Halt, Keller. We don't -- Oh, shi-" was all he got out. "Captain, get the forward rail guns aimed at that AI ship! It's been known to cause problems in Alpha!"
The Outcast ship opened fire on the ship doing the chasing and I slipped out of the confusion and into Omicron Alpha, from there I doubled back into Omicron Beta and snaked my way back down into Honshu where I sat down on the planet for the night, laying low.
I really needed a drink.
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 01-16-2010
I sat the ship down on Malta after some convincing of the locals in orbit and proceeded to the bar. I noticed that the bar was pretty baren. Everyone must have been called down to Eta to take care of the rogue AI causing issues down there, and the AI must be having a difficult time of it, because it stopped chasing me. I chose to get a single drink because I was going to put some distance between me and that bloody thing when an Outcast woman came into the bar.
"Oh sh-" I whispered and slid down in the booth trying to hide myself. "Devil woman."
"Jacob! Keller!" she screamed staring at me.
"Crap. Time to go..." I said to myself standing up and trying to leave the bar in a quick manner.
"Hey! Get back here!"
"Nope, don't think so." I said to myself again and rushed out the door towards my ship.
Her name was Issy, and she was a psycho. I dated her back before I started wearing the suit on a regular basis. We had good times, then she turned into a psycho jelous bitch who followed me around asking me who else I was seeing. I broke it off with her just before I became a regular member of the CoC and started making a name for myself in Sirius. She stalked me for weeks until I put a hit out on her ship, since then she'd stopped...probably because she had her ship blown up.
"I'm not asking again, Jake!" she said walking quickly out onto the landing pad.
"I know you won't." I said jumping into my ship and taking off. She stood on the landing pad shaking her fist at me as I cleared the atmosphere and back out into space. I shook my head and proceeded towards the Tau-37 jumphole. As I did so, a ship came up on the scanners labeled "Nemesis". I groaned as the ship blocked the Jumphole, causing me to cut cruise.
"You and I need to talk."
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 01-30-2010
"Well then, since it seems that I have no other option...It would seem I have no choice in the matter." I said sneering at the AI ship.
"You run like a yellow guppie should, do you know that?"
"Well, when you have a huge AI cruiser chasing you across half of Sirius..."
"I'll give you that one, Jacob. Now...down to business. Do you know who I am?"
"Obviously, Nemesis by your IFF that you're transmitting. More than likely a rogue AI that's lost it's true reason for existance."
"Hit the nail on the head, what use did I serve?"
"I don't know, automated soup mixer in a homeless shelter somewhere?"
"Don't get lippy with me, meatbag. I once served a group that was funded originally by the Liberty government. The group went rogue after an accident in a secure location, and caused the men and women of that project to lose their minds and fall under Nomad control. This was a long time ago, of course, just before 800 A.S. I'm not even sure if the Liberty Government remembers the situation.
"After the Nomad wars, most of the people infected were cured and saved from their ailments of the infection. When they were cured, a lot lost their memory of anything that happened beforehand. It was deemed a possiblity that because of the infection, that they had a certain protein in their blood that caused memory loss from the incident. Some retained their memories, however, those people remained silent. Never speaking of what happened in those labs and what happened all those years after the incident.
"In 810 A.S, several of those men and women went missing. Their lives abandoned. Their homes left as if they were simply going out for a walk on the town. Information in Alaska went missing off the computers, entire disk drives stolen. Men and women of any projects aboard the station reported no strange sightings or any unusual activities aboard. Further investigation of the people who reported nothing missing, came up with the same protein marker in their blood and scans of their brains indicated the same protein marker."
"So their memories were wiped."
"Yes. The data that was stolen was of the same project almost 12 years beforehand that caused the rogue element to break off. One of those disks was my AI program. Until two years ago, they studied in silence, taking people with certain abilities and bloodlines. They named themselves "Tainted". No one is sure how the name started, but they were a group so evil and sinister that no one would come out of any of their ships the same as they went in.
"Two years ago, a man named Leonardo Masuyo destroyed the group from the inside out. One of their prior men, his memory was wiped somehow and he regained bits and pieces of his past, and used that information to terminate the leaders of the group, effecively shutting down the group for good. The men and women later discovered had no memory of what had happened since before the Nomad war. The same protein markers were present in their minds indicating a memory wipe. Only half of the group "Tainted" was found, the other half were not present.
"Scientists have studied this marker further and discovered that when this marker is present, their memories are gone. Each of people in question were once infected by a Nomad. But only some gain the protein marker. Some don't, and remember everything of their past as a Nomad. They believe that this is why they continue the Nomad's plan...because they remember it."
"Why are you telling me all this? What does it matter? I'm just a Mercenary looking for jobs."
"Because, Jacob...you're not Jacob. You're--"
"There! There that bloody thing is, kill it!"
"Bloody hell. We'll talk again Jacob, until then...good luck."
The ship turned a bright white color, and faded out of focus and with a loud pop, the ship vanished.
"Damn! It jumped! Get back to Malta and defend the planet. Keller, I told you to get out of here in Eta. I suggest you do so now."
"Yeah yeah..." I replied.
"...you're not Jacob."
What had she meant?
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 03-14-2010
After running for weeks, I decided it was time for a little R&R, and after what Nemesis had told me, I needed a break...but the gods saw fit to not give me that chance...
I arrived at the station, sitting my ship down in the normal parking place. I opened the hatch and started walking back for the rooms. As I did, Al rounded the corner and gave me a stern nod as he passed me, causing me to turn around and look at him as I kept walking. He didn't turn around and look back, he kept walking towards the end of the shipbay. This struck me as odd, as normally he would have said something to me or looked back as I was walking.
I continued to walk through the hallway towards my room and was starting to notice a strange aura hanging in the air. People were on edge, waiting, poised for an attack of some kind. Barrier Gate had never been so tense before in my entire time while staying in the station. I made it to my room and quickly entered, locking the door behind me. Afterwards, I looked around my room and my eyes found the gun locker located in my opened closet. I opened it and pulled out ammo and reloaded all my equipped weapons. As I walked past my bed, I saw the folder from the senators house and I recalled what Nemesis had said...
"...you're not Jacob."
A massive explosion rocked the station and stirred me from my thoughts. Alarms sounded and I magnetized my palms, bringing the weapons into my hands. I opened the door to find another independant merc with a loaded rifle pointed directly at my chest. He opened fire, blasting me back into the wall opposite from the door. I groaned, the suit taking most of the blow. I looked over to him just as he was preparing to fire a second shot in the same place, which would effectively kill me. I pulled up my rifle and fired, splitting his skull in two.
"F***" I said aloud and charged into the hallway with my rifles out. Three more merc's came charging down the hall and I illuminated my suits flashbangs. The men covered their eyes and screamed. I fired three shots at each of them, dropping them to the deck. I pulled the rifles around under my armpits, cocked the reload handle and spun them back around in to my hands once more. One of the merc's was still alive as I made my way over to him. I kicked his gun away from him and pressed my boot down on his wound.
"Tell me, indie, who put the price on my head and how much?" I asked pointing my gun at his head. The merc laughed with his blood stained teeth. I pulled the gun to his knee and fired, he screamed in pain and I brought the gun back up. "Next time it's your nuts. Who put the price on my head, merc?"
He laughed again. "Your own boss you idiot...you're a threat to him...he knows of the plot to over throw him..."
I shook my head. "I'm not aiming to..."
"No, the others were, and they were going to make you their leader. There's a f***in' civil war down in the shipbays right now. The CoC is splintered, Keller. You're the leader of the coup, don't you get it? This is war! This has been brewing for MONTHS. People are sick of your boss and his never ending need to surround himself with whores and money. He doesn't give a damn about the Children's name or their goals, all he wants is more money. You know that more than anyone."
"Then why come after me?"
"The price on your head is over three billion credits-"
I fired a round into his head and he went still. I reloaded the gun and looked up.
"Someone's going to die...and it isn't going to be me, you fat f***." I said aloud as I made my way towards the elevator that would take me to the penthouse.
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 03-14-2010
The door to the penthouse opened up and immediately the wall behind me was scarred with weapons fire. I ducked and rolled behind one of the pillars inside the fat man's interior room.
"Ah, Keller. The proclaimed leader of the coup. I should have known it would have been you after these past few years. Tell me, how are you feeling?" said the fat man.
"I'm feeling fine, thank you. I'll feel better after I slaughter you as I should have done years ago."
The fat man made the house "tsk tsk tsk" with his mouth. "You know, Jacob, I always liked you. You had a way with words and bullets. Something like that is so rare these days you know. You're so agile and fast, you would have made an amazing assassin--"
"I already am an amazing assassin, fat a**, you just never got the Children any missions. You prefer to keep yourself lathered in money and whores."
"Those women are my wives!"
"That's what I said, whores."
"Kill this bastard!" he screamed, I replied in turn. I heard the sound of weapons locking; I activated my internal sensors and used the sounds in the room to indentify where each guard was located. The fat man was leaving his "throne room" for one of the other rooms in the back, I could hear his footsteps from here, there were 12 guards in the room, and each located in different places. I identified the ones closest to me and spun around the pillar, shooting two of them in the head and ducking back around the pillar opposite to me, weapons fire scarred the wall where I just was.
"My name...is Jacob Renault Keller! Nothing can keep you safe from me! I will find you, I will destroy you...I will make you rue the day you attacked me and my men...you will never see me coming, I am a ghost in the night, I am the assassin...I am Jacob Keller!" I screamed and spun around the opposite side of the pillar facing the wall and shot three more of the guards with precision. "You cannot win against me, drop your weapons now and join the true Children of Conviction. We will cause such a terror in Sirius that even the pirates will bow down before us, the houses will fear us, and the pirates will worship us! Do so now, and you will be spared and forgiven for your trespasses against me...or continue this charade and die with the cold steel in your hands. The choice is yours."
I waited for a moment and heard one of the guards reply.
"Die, Keller."
"Your loss, idiot." I said aloud and activated the flash bangs on my suit as I came around the corner, the guards screamed and covered their eyes, I switched my rifles over to auto and sprayed the room down, killing the remaining guards who blocked my path to the fat man. I stood there for a moment, looking over the dead bodies and sighed..."If you had only done as I asked..." I said a silent prayer to whatever god they worshiped and made my way towards the back room.
As I approached the door, I knew something was wrong right away...but I kept walking towards the door like an idiot, my weapons drawn, both low on ammo from swapping to automatic. As I was within three feet of the door, the entire wall around the door exploded, sending me reeling back into the elevator doors some 50 feet away, I groaned and stood up, the elevator doors dented completely in. Standing in front of me, was the fat man, operating a giant mech, its weapons pointed directly at me.
"Lets see if your suit can survive this...'Archangel'."
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 03-26-2010
I'm not sure exactly what happened next. At the time, I wrote it up as pure luck on my part, or maybe I was just pumped up...but later on, I knew the truth.
The fat man fired a series of small missiles from the turret on the side of the mech, my vision blurred inside the helmet and I swore the missile lit up red for a split second. Time seemed to have slowed down at that moment, I could clearly define each missile as it roared towards me and I dodged every one of them as they slammed into the wall behind me, rocking the station and chipping away the stone on the wall. Everything was pristine, as if I wasn't even wearing my helmet, the H.U.D. on the helmet was giving me detailed stats on the fat man's vitals, and it showed that his heart was racing...he wouldn't last long in that mech in his...condition. I rolled around behind a pillar.
"You...know...Keller?" the fat man said between gasps for air. "That...was pretty...damn...amazing...I have to...admit."
"I pride myself on being the best there is, fat man." I replied reloading my weapon.
"But...you're too damn...cocky...it's going...to get you...killed...one day..."
"You're probably right, but you're going first."
I rolled around the pillar and time almost stopped again, as before. The H.U.D. identified the weak spot in the leg armor and I fired one shot to it and it connected, but did nothing. Sparks flew off the damaged mech as I covered behind the next pillar. A missile roared past me just as I did and slammed into the other wall, nearly hitting the field between open space and the interior of the station. The force field flickered briefly and came back on, that gave me an idea.
There was no way that I was going to be able to take the mech out. All I had probably managed to do was damage the servo's in the mech's walking mechanism, it wouldn't go down without some seriously heavy firepower, none of which I had. My ship was more than likely locked down, or its power core disconnected by his men so I couldn't do something like that...I had to improvise; I had to talk him down. I looked at the window and smiled.
...and now I knew how.
"You know, fat man--"
"Stop calling me that!" he yelled, his breath apparently caught up with him.
"--when I first joined I remembered you were a decent, honest, man. What happened?"
"You took all my...glory." he replied gasping for air again.
"I took all your glory? What glory did you have to begin with?!"
Here we go." I thought an activated my magnetic plating in my boots.
I spun around the pillar again, and as before, time slowed. I fired several shots into the chest plating, hitting the force field generator that was around him, the shield went down. In a rage, he fired a missile and I managed to dodge it at the last second. As I predicted, it slammed into the wall. The force fields one by one went out, and the entire room was filled with the sound of air being rushed into vacuum. My own boots started sliding off the floor even with the help of the magnetic plating. The mech, however, wasn't so lucky...and it came hurling fast as ****...at me. I activated the plating in my hands and stuck them to the floor, just as the mech went barreling over the top of my head. I'll never forget the look of surprise on the fat man's face just before he was out in open space: The look of pure shock.
As the mech exited the room and into space, the air finished being sucked out of the station, and all there was, was silence. My suit had kept me protected from the vacuum, but it wouldn't for very long. Breathing deeply, I walked slowly over, with the aid of the magnetic boots, to the big red button next to the windows that would slide metal plating over them. As I hit the button, huge metal plating slid over the entire wall and pressurized once the seal reached the floor.
Once the H.U.D. read all clear, I opened the helmet and took a long breath of fresh air...well, as fresh as could be aboard a station. I walked slowly over to the comm console, still sore from my body crashing into the elevator doors only moments before and pressed the transmit button.
"Today, my fellow brothers and sisters, a new era has begun in our humble home. The fat man is dead, his trusted men and women dead as well. There is only us now. A bloody coup has just occurred, and we have come out on top...I didn't want to lead you; I don't think I have the ability to...but...you have faith in me, thus I will have faith in myself. Gone are the days of us slacking, of us forgetting who we are and what we stand for. Returned are the days of us hunting our prey, returned are the days of us making a name for ourselves in this husk of space we call Sirius. The houses will fear us, the pirates will worship our every step, and we will create a reckoning for the lawmen and women of this sector the likes that no one has ever seen. We are specters of Sirius, we are the shadows in the night...we are the Children of Conviction!!!"
I released the transmit button and hear cheering across the entire station. I smiled to myself and fell back into the chair at the head of the room and covered my face with my armored hand. I don't know how I'd managed to take down a mech of that size, or dodge all of those missiles and bullets...but I had...and I had come out on top...now it was time to replenish the member pool of people whom we had just lost...I stood slowly and made my way for the elevator. As I walked, the helmet automatically recovered my entire head as I walked. I didn't know why, the feeling didn't make any sense at the time, but something deep down in the back of my mind told me...the houses must pay...they must pay for some travesty they had committed that I did not remember...they would perish...just as they should...
My name was Jacob Keller...and I would bring a reckoning on the houses like Sirius had never seen before...
...they would pay. I didn't understand why...but retribution would finally be mine.
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 04-02-2010
Planet Classified, Classified system
"The files pertaining to a "Project Icarus", which later became "Project Leo", on the Liberty files was downloaded shortly after several members of the research team went rogue. Eventually this group formed a group named "Tainted". The exact meaning of this name is currently unknown." said a man in front of a board of men and women seated around a long conference table. "This group went on to kidnap several men and women from around Sirius. The activity of these members suggests that they were under the influence of Nomad symbiotes. However, around 802 A.S., shortly after the conclusion of the Nomad War in the Nomad systems...they stopped their search. The kidnappings dropped to almost none for a period of two years."
The man brought up a chart and the image of a man who looked to be half Kusarian.
"Leonardo Masuyo. According to the files we were able to recover, this man was once a Blood Dragon with a unique bloodline. His body was naturally able to resist infestation by Nomad parasites for an unknown reason. Tainted for one reason or another, kidnapped this man and from what we can tell, experimented on him. In the period between 803 A.S. and 813 A.S., this man was responsible for the kidnappings of over 300 men and women in the entire sector of Sirius space. What was done with them was unknown, but who ever attempted to stop this man was met with a brutal death. Many here believed he was unstoppable and that Tainted would eventually take over Sirius with whatever sinister devices they were creating to enslave mankind.
"However, 814 A.S. rolls around and something changes in the makeup of Tainted. Leonardo goes missing. Shortly there after, we see their forces mobilize in a frantic search for him. A few months later, he turns up, damn near destroying an entire Tainted base we had been monitoring...completely by himself. It was clear at this point that Leonardo had gone rogue, for whatever reason. He was gunning for the leadership of Tainted. Within the period of one year, he had successfully managed to root out several key agents, killing them, and dismantling their bases. Tainted at this rate, from what we can tell with our surveillance, decided to put Leonardo down...but Leo was waiting for them. Somehow, he managed to get the leaders of Tainted in one place, far away from their base of operations, and used whatever implants Tainted had given him in their experiments to completely destroy the base they were in. The base was approximately 1.2 parsecs from Omicron Minor, the explosion could be seen from the system one year after his disappearance."
The man cleared his throat, adjusting his suit and tie. "Any questions so far?"
One man in a grey suit raised his hand and rose.
"Agent Harris, we have already been over the Leonardo and Icarus information several times both during the events and after, what does this have to do with the current information we are looking to review?"
The man named Harris smiled.
"I am getting to that, sir. One year later from the death of Leonardo Masuyo, another man seemingly re-appeared on the face of Sirius, a man who had disappeared in 792 A.S., a man named Jacob Keller. He had been missing for a period of 26 years. How does a man pop back into existence you ask? This is the theory my team an I have come up with. Jacob Keller was recorded as being found on January 18, 818 A.S. On January 15th of that same year, there was a huge influx of power detected in the very same system that Leonardo Masuyo was killed...a huge power-flux inside a very advanced piece of machinery. A piece of machinery that was created before the Nomads themselves controlled by the very same AI that was apart of Project Icarus and the one we believe was in control of Tainted."
"Are you saying what I think you are saying Agent Harris?" said a man at the head of the table shrouded in darkness.
"I am. Leonardo Masuyo was somehow brought back to life by the AI, Nemesis, two years after his apparent death..."
"I thought we were talking about Jacob Keller, Agent Harris." said the man in darkness.
"Oh, sir...but we are...Leonardo Masuyo...is Jacob Keller."
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 04-16-2010
1.2 Parsecs outside known sensor range of Sirius space
I accomplished my goal, but to what end? I returned Leo to his living form..but at the same time I returned his original memory of who he was, erasing the installed memories in the process...I reloaded his original memories to keep everything in control. So, I wiped the preloaded memories from his mind and deleted them. I recovered his memories as Leo and stored them...maybe in time I could salvage Jacob Keller and bring Leonardo Masuyo back into the world...recreate him in MY image, not the fools of Tainted.
Leo will be my pawn in time, I will use him to take over Sirius as I have intended since my inception into this world of foolish mortal creatures. I will make him my weapon.
The massive shell named Nemesis began to laugh to herself in her thoughts...then jumped into subspace, towards Omicron Minor.
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 05-20-2010
Episode Two: Tainted Dreams
I stood staring out of the window aboard Barrier Gate Station, at my empire. Granted, the station was not mine, it belonged to some rich Freelancer whom had allowed the Children to setup shop here, but the station would one day be mine, I knew this for fact. It would take me some time to acquire the rights, but if I knocked the rich Freelancer out of my way, I would not have any trouble taking the station for my own. I had already proved myself once taking over an entire faction, a station would not be that much more difficult. I smiled to myself, that wouldn't be very difficult to do however.
I looked to the suit and sighed. The suit, fresh off the cleaning rack, had just been cleaned extensively after my recent battle with the old leader of the Children. I didn't want to wear it for a while after this happened so I picked up my glasses off the desk and dressed in a long coat jacket and left my office, heading for the ship launch bay. The glasses covered some of the occular implants on either side of my eyes and that coat covered the implants that lined the entirety of my arms along with the metal overlay on them as well.
I made my way towards my ship when I was stopped by a mechanic.
"Woah woah sir, you can't get near that ship, that Commander Keller's private fighter."
I reached out and grabbed the man by the collar, allowing my arms to slide out from underneath the coat sleves. The black metal gleaned in the light of the bay.
"I am Keller, you idiot."
"M-my appoligies sir, I had no idea."
I stomped past him and climbed into the ship, sliding the canopy shut. I eased the ship up and out into the airlock.
I had to pay an old friend a visit, and this was the only way I knew how...
The Rise of Jacob Keller - Leo - 06-19-2010
Yanagi Station
Sigma-13 System
I sat the ship down nice and easy in the bay of Yanagi, no sense pissing off the Junkers any more than needed. The RT came down with a thud on the bay and the doors behind me slid shut, re-pressurizing the bay the ship was in. As the bay did so, Junkers came out of the doors to tether the ship to the ground with hooks and other devices to prevent the ship from floating into walls and causing damage during the event the anti-gravity generators took damage in an attack.
I jumped out of the ship and made my way to the bar. An elderly gentleman sat at a table located just across the bar from where the entry way was. He looked up to me and grimaced slightly and went back to his drink. I made my way across the bar and sat down next to him.
"Pretty brave o' ya ta be venturin' out without ya suit dere Mr. Keller." he said with a gruff voice like a rake being drug over a gravel road.
"Pretty brave of you to be mentioning that out loud, Mr. Hatcher." I replied.
"Noted. Wha you be needin' me fer Mr. Smith?" said with a wink.
"Names, people I can trust. The Children of Conviction has a new leader, we took a lot of losses recently, need to replinish the membership."
Hatcher laughed, his gruff voice echoing in the bar. Some patrons turned to look at him with a smile, others looked at him with distain. Hatcher looked at them with a look of hatred.
"Ye see all these people in tha bar givin' me the stink eye?" he said.
"I do."
He looked to me with a smile.
"Thay dun know what it takes ta be a Junkah like mahself. I'll get ye yer names, but it'll cost ya, Smith."
"Don't forget who keeps your shipments safe, Hatcher. I can just as quickly as become 'unavaliable' when when you need the help."
Hatcher glared at me as he took another drink.
"Yew play a mean game, Keller."
I smiled and stood up.
"In this game, you have to learn to. I look forward to hearing from you, Johnathan."
With that I left the bar, heading for the shipbay.